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ARS UNA: SPECIES MILLE 
GENERAL HISTORY OF ART 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 
By Eugenie Strong 


ART IN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRE- 
LAND 
By Sir Walter Armstrong 


ART IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL 
By Marcel Dieulafoy 


ART IN FRANCE 
By Louis Hourticq 


ART IN EGYPT 
By Sir Gaston Maspero 


ART IN NORTHERN ITALY 


By Commendatore Corrado Ricci 


ART IN FLANDERS 
By Max Rooses 


THE ACTOR, C. NORBANUS SORIX (TIME OF SULLA). 
(Bronze Head, Naples). 


Poe Ny: SPECIES MILLE 
GENERAL HISTORY OF ART 


ART IN 


ANCIENT ROME 


BY 


EUGENIE STRONG 


C.B.E., M.A., Litt.D. (T.C.D.), Hon. LL.D. (S. Andrews), 
Hon. Litt.D. (Manchester), F.S.A., F.S.A. (Scot.), etc., etc. 
VOLUME. I 


FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE PRINCIPATE 
OF NERO 


NEW YORK 
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S 
MCMXXVIII 


Copyricxt, 1928, sy : : Sy 
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS | 


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"i ‘TLIO F OAL 


PREFACE 


Books dealing with special aspects of the art of ancient Rome can 
now be counted by the score. But there is still a lack, it seems to 
me, of some work affording a connected account of what is known 
of the subject as a whole. The material collected is immense, but 
it needs further co-ordination. 

These two volumes of the “Ars Una”’ series represent a first 
modest endeavour in this direction. My effort has been to bring 
together, as much as possible in their chronological order, the main 
facts relative to the art of Rome and the Empire. The subject 
is still beset with innumerable difficulties and uncertainties, but 
in a book intended for students and for the cultivated public who, 
without being specialists, take an ever livelier interest in Rome, 
I have thought it wiser to avoid the thorny paths of controversy. 
Where it seemed imperative to take note of conflicting opinions, 
the comments are of the briefest. My aim throughout has been to 
show, as clearly as in me lay, that the diverse phases of Roman art 
correspond to as many phases in the spiritual and political life of the 
Roman people. 

The ground traversed may seem too vast, but it is no longer 
possible, as once, to identify the art of Rome with that of the Empire, 
or to rest content with an introduction of a few pages on the question 
of early influences, whether Greek or Etruscan. In order to under- 
stand the later developments of art in Rome, it is necessary first to 
know something of the art of primitive Italy, when Rome was only 
one—and by no means the greatest—of the Italic cities. In order 
fully to appreciate Rome’s eventual contribution to the art of the 
West, we need to understand how upon the old Latin stock were 
grafted shoots brought in turn from Etruria, from Greece, from the 
great Hellenistic cities of Asia and of Africa. And if these foreign 
growths threatened at times, as towards the end of the Republic, 
to absorb the vital sap of the original tree, yet the Roman type 
recovered itself under the Empire and gradually reached its full 
and independent development. Augustus began the miracle by 
forcing all the arts, including literature, to be faithful interpreters 
of the Imperial idea. But Augustus only effected a transition. 
The art of his principate can no longer be looked upon as repro- 
ducing in their entirety the essential qualities of Roman art. 

Vil 


PREFACE 


Augustan art is strongly tinged with a naturalism which was elabor- 
ated to its perfection under the Flavians. But after the Flavians 
this naturalism declined and died, and gave place to the severe 
realism of Trajanic art. Then, after endless transformations and 
experiments under the Antonines; art acquired by degrees that 
stern majesty which already marks several works of the period of 
the Severi, attains to full efflorescence under Constantine, and, 
fortunately for the art of primitive Christianity and that of medieval 
Europe, continued as a living force long after his principate. 

The indestructibility of the Roman type is patent throughout 
the story. As it had resisted Hellenistic influences under the 
Republic, so under the Empire it was proof against the strong 
Oriental currents which, it is often asserted, threatened its very 
existence. But these currents simply brought with them new seeds 
of life and thus averted the sterility which inevitably overtakes any 
art impervious to extraneous influence. To make this fully clear, 
some survey, however short, of the art produced in the Provinces 
of the Empire seemed needed, and was actually included in my 
original scheme, but the book proved sufficiently long as it is and, 
to my regret, I had to limit myself, for the rich products of pro- 
vincial art, to brief indications at the close of the chapters dealing 
with the Imperial period. 

Even thus curtailed, I am aware how inadequately | have carried 
out my own programme. I must, moreover, disclaim any pretence 
of having written a book for archeologists, or one that can prove 
of the slightest utility or interest to them, either now or in the future. 
I am mindful of the warning, issued with subtle irony by Alessandro 
della Seta,to those simple-minded workmen in the field of archeology 
who toil to collect stones which are of no use for the building up of 
any structure, since, when a scholar of genius arises, “he, at once 
workman and architect, begins anew by collecting in his own way 
the materials which he needs.” I certainly cannot hope to have 
provided stones worthy of a place, however modest, in the founda- 
tions upon which a real history of Roman art must eventually be 
based. But I shall at least sing my Nunc dimittis in peace if | 
have been able to show the way to those rich quarries where other 
workers, abler and better equipped for the task, can discover the 
building materials necessary to more durable reconstructions. 


Like everyone who works in the Roman field, I am primarily 
indebted, on this as on former occasions, to Wickhoff and to Riegl. 
For primitive Italy much help can now be derived from della Seta’s” 
Italia Antica, from the Etruria of Ducati, and from the recent 

vill 


PREFACE 


investigations of G.von Kashnitz into the nature of Etruscan influence 
in early Roman portraiture, while important contributions have 
recently been made to our knowledge of Republican art by C. 
Weickert and J. Sieveking. I regret that Lehmann-Hartleben’s 
two great volumes on Roman bronzes appeared too late to allow me 
to make more than passing allusion to them. His earlier work, 
the Trajansaule, has—as | have tried to make clear—brought new 
and vivid light to bear upon the origin and character of Roman 
triumphal relief. Other signal contributions to our knowledge of 
the art of the Trajanic Principate have been made by R. Paribeni 
in his Optimus Princefs, published only last year. For the later 
periods I am under deep obligation—as everyone must be—to the 
writings of G. Rodenwaldt, C. Albizzati, G. v. Kaschnitz, R. Del- 
brueck and C. Morey. For the dates of monuments I owe much 
to Professor Tenney Frank’s illuminating monograph on the building 
materials of Republican Rome, and to those inspiring papers and 
articles in which Dr. Esther van Deman has solved so many problems 
relative to the dating of the buildings of the Urbs. In this con- 
nexion I should also mention my debt to Cultrera’s Architettura 
Ippodamea, an interesting contribution to ancient town planning 
of which, had not space failed me, I could have made more use. 
The bibliographies and even the text show how much I have tried to 
learn from the works of the late Teresio Rivoira and from those of 
Tenney Frank and of M. Rostowzew. My more personal thanks are 
due to Dr. Thomas Ashby for the encouragement accorded me in this 
and other work during an official association of sixteen years; for the 
privileges of free access to his rich library, and for generously loaning 
to me so many of his own valuable photographs of Rome and the 
Campagna, before he had published them himself. Every student 
of Rome is indebted to Ashby’s numerous books and articles, but 
I have to thank him more especially for allowing me the use of the 
proof sheets of his latest works, and of his still unpublished topo- 
graphical dictionary of Rome—a work (undertaken in collaboration 
with the late S. Platner) which promises to be the most important 
monument of Roman archeological scholarship that has appeared 
of late years. I owe another special debt to my friend Mrs. Arundell 
Esdaile, for helping me shape and revise the first draft of the book. 
After all these years | must not hold her responsible for any of my 
statements, yet I like to think that the work retains even now occa- 
sional traces of her fine powers of criticism. We worked together 
during tragic and unforgettable weeks at the beginning of the War, 
and I often think of how we strove to cheat the anxious hours by 
steeping ourselves in the problems offered by the art of Eternal Rome. 
1X 


PREFACE, 


Endless delays have attended the production of the book—delays 
caused by war and post-war conditions; by the reported loss on 
two different occasions of important photographs and irreplaceable 
clichés, and by the constant inflow of new material. I could scarcely 
have coped with these repeated worries and disappointments had 
it not been for the intelligent assistance given me in a secretarial 
capacity by various students and young colleagues. Mademoiselle 
Jacqueline de la Harpe, in particular, and, on a later occasion, Mr. 
Roger Hinks (now of the Department of Greek and Roman Anti- 
quities in the British Museum) worked with me with untiring zeal 
on what I each time hoped might be the last revision. This was in 
1924-25. In 1925 the book went to the printers, but its publication 
was once again delayed owing to the troublesome question of illustra- 
tions. Meanwhile an unceasing stream of new discoveries and 
articles had to be taken into account, and Mr. Hinks, who under- | 
stands better than anyone the difficulties that beset me, has continued 
to give me much assistance, especially in archeological matters, 
and has even volunteered to correct the final proofs, that publication, 
in spite of my absence from England, might not be further retarded. 
In the matter of proof correction I am likewise very grateful to 
the Rev. Canon Lonsdale Ragg for generously giving me the benefit 
of his experience and skill, and for many useful suggestions. 

The illustrations have been selected not merely as accompaniments 
to the text, but as an intrinsic part of the argument. Many of them 
are of little known objects, and in collecting them I have received 
generous and ready help from the following: in Italy, from R. Pari- 
beni, G. Lugli, G. Calza, V. Spinazzola, the late Teresio Rivoira, 
B. Nogara, S. Bocconi, and the Gabinetto Fotografico of the Ministry 
of Fine Arts; in France, from S. Reinach, E. Espérandieu, MM. 
Hachette (publishers of the French “Ars Una’’); in Germany, 
C. Weickert, J. Sieveking, C. Lehmann-Hartleben, G. v. Kaschnitz 
and G. Rodenwaldt; in England from the authorities of the Greek 
and Roman Department in the British Museum, also from G. F. 
Hill and H. Mattingly of the Department of Coins and Medals 
(who kindly sent me casts of various coins); and from the late 
Gertrude Lowthian Bell, who lent me for study or reproduction 
many of her valuable photographs of Roman sites in the East; in 
Denmark from F. Poulsen, Director of the Glyptothek at Ny 
Carlsberg, and in New York from Gisela Richter, of the Metro- 
politan Museum. Mr. J. S. Beaumont and Mr. Gordon Leith 
—both of them former students of the British School at Rome— 
gave me permission, as long ago as before the war, to reproduce 


the two plans in Vol. II, p. 58 (Fig. 331) and p. 60 (Fig. 335) 
x 


PREFACE 


respectively. Finally, Prof. R. Delbrueck had given me, also be- 
fore the war, prints of many fine photographs taken for his own 
books, and had, moreover, allowed me to make use of certain 
quotations from the lectures delivered during his official residence in 
Rome. L. Curtius, Director of the German Archeological Institute 
in Rome, has likewise allowed me to reproduce unpublished 
observations of his on the second and fourth Pompeian styles of 
architectural decoration, which will, it is hoped, soon be available 
in his forthcoming book on Pompeian painting. Should this list 
prove incomplete, I ask forgiveness for the unintentional oversight.1 

In a book of this nature the bibliographies at the end of each 
chapter are necessarily of the briefest. They are restricted to the 
mention of publications which I have found useful to myself, and 
which I judge will be useful to others. Nothing that has appeared 
within the last eighteen months could be seriously taken into 
account. I can only refer the reader in a general manner to 
the important articles on Roman monuments and works of art 
which have appeared in the Bulletino Comunale for 1927 (e.g. 
by A. M. Colini on the Pantheon and by Colini and Giglioli on 
the Mausoleum of Augustus), and in the Romische Mittheilungen 
for 1927 (e.g. by Sieveking and by Herbig); to F. Noack’s fine con- 
tribution to the origins of the triumphal arch, in the monographs 
issued by the Bibliothek Warburg, or to Ed. Weigand’s Propylon 
und Bogenthor (in Wiener Jahrbuch fiir Kunstgeschichte, 1928), which 
though primarily concerned with the East, is of great importance 
for Republican and Imperial Rome. A few other omissions have 
been made good in the Addenda et Errata. 


In conclusion, I cannot but recall the name of the iate Mr. William 
Heinemann—English publisher of the “Ars Una”’ series, and one 
of its original founders—to whom I owe the invitation to write the 
volume on the art of ancient Rome and who took a lively interest in 
its beginnings. To his successor, Mr. Theodore Byard, I likewise 
owe sincere gratitude for unfailing assistance in the midst of diffi- 
culties, and for the considerateness and liberality with which he 
has always received my many suggestions and tried to fall in with 
my wishes. 


Rome, July 1, 1928. 


EuGENIE STRONG. 


1The photographs which I have personally provided were generally taken in 
England by Mr. R. B. Fleming, in Rome by Signor Faraglia. All the rest are 
by special arrangement between the publishers and Messrs. Alinari and other 
houses. 


x1 


GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY 


WITH ABBREVIATIONS 


Detta Seta, A.: J Monumenti dell’ Antichita Classica, vol. ii, 
Italia, 1926. 

Ducati, P.: L’ Arte Classica, 1920. 

ea R., and Cuapot, V.: Manuel d’ Archéologie Romaine, 2 vols.s 3 
1920. 

Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum = C. I. L. 

GRANT-SHOWERMAN: Eternal Rome, 1922. 

Gusman, P.: L’ Art décoratif de Rome, 1911> (Coll. of large plates.) 

He.sic, W.: Fiihrer durch die Sammlungen Klassischer Alterthiimer 
in Rom., ed. 1911 by W. Amelung = H. A. 

Noack, F.: Die Baubunst der Altertums (s.d.). 

Kocu, H.: Roémische Kunst, 1925 

Pauty-Wissova: Real Encyclopedie der Classischen Altertums- 
wissenschaft = P. W.—{esp. Graffunder’s art. “Rom” in II. 
1. i, pp. 1008-1061). 

Reinacu, 5.: Répertoire des Reliefs Grecs ef Romains = R. R. 

— Répertoire des Peintures Grecques et Romaines = R. P. G. R. 

Rieci, A.: Spat-Romische Kunstindustrie, new ed., 1927. 

SaGLio-PoTTieER (formerly Daremberg et Saglio): Dictionnaire 
des Antiquités Grecques et Romaines. 

SPRINGER-MicuHaELis: Die Kunst des Altertums, |2th ed., by P. 
Wolters, 1923. 

Stronc, E.: Roman Sculpture from Augustus to Constantine, 1907, 
= R. S.; Italian ed., 1923-1925 = Sc. R 

— Apotheosis and After Life, 1916. 

Watters, H. B.: The Art of the Romans, 1911. 

WickuorF, F.: Roman Art, trans. E. Strong, 1900. 


xil 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER I 
PREHISTORIC ITALY . i 


CHAPTER II 
ETRUSCAN AND EARLY GREEK INFLUENCE IN ROME 


CHAPTER III 


FROM THE FALL OF VEII AND THE SACK OF ROME BY THE 
GAPE t0e el lHE. CLOSE OF THE SECOND CENTURY B.C. 
GROWTH OF GREEK INFLUENCE 


CHAPTER IV 


PAINTING AND SCULPTURE IN ROME FROM THE FOURTH TO 
THE SECOND CENTURIES B.C. . 


CHAPTER V 


THE LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC—-THE MASTER-BUILDERS 
—SULLA AND THE REPLANNING OF ROME—POMPEY THE 
GREAT AND JULIUS CASSAR—-HELLENISTIC INFLUENCES 


CHAPTER VI 


Poe ease CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC: SCULPTURE AND 
PAINTING 


CHAPTER VII 


LATIN TERRA-COTTAS 
Xlll 


PAGE 


12 


35 


55 


76 


a 


I] 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER VIII PAGE 
AUGUSTUS—THE BATTLE OF ACTIUM AND THE CULT OF APOLLO 
—THE REACTION TOWARDS LATIN TRADITIONS. eA Ps: 
CHAPTER IX 
THE JULIO-CLAUDIAN EMPERORS (AD. 14-68)—TIBERIUS AND 
CALIGULA: NERO. IMPERIAL PALACES AND GOLDEN HOUSE . 157 
CHAPTER X 


PORTRAITURE UNDER AUGUSTUS AND THE JULIO—CLAUDIANS yes, (3 


XIV 


ADDENDA ET ERRATA 
VOL. I 


Ch. II, p. 23. For coin of Gens Sulpicia, see Grueber, B.M. Coins of Roman 
Republic, 1. 204, Pl. LV, 14. 
To Bibliography add by D. Randall-Maclver, The Etruscans, 1927; and 
H. Muhlestein, die Kunst der Etrusker [1928 >]. 
Ch. III, p. 51. To the monographs quoted in Pref., p. xi, add Spano in Neapolis, 
I, on origin of R. triumphal arch. 
Ch. IV, p. 62, Fig. 52, see B.M. Cat. of Gems, 1926, No. 1033, and for Fig. 53 see: 
new Ch. Dugas, Gaz. des Beaux Arts, 1927, p. 347 f. 
Ch. IX, p. 158, 1. 16 from bottom. For and kredemnon, read and wearing the head- 
dress known as kredemnon. 
P. 167. Basilica of Porta Maggiore now fully published by G. Bendinelli 
in Mon. Antichi dei Lincei, xxxi, 1927. 
P. 170. For sarcophagus Caffarelli see Rodennealdt in Winckelmann’s 
Program for 1925. 


FIG. I.—BUILDING STRAW HUTS IN THE ROMAN CAMPAGNA (ASHBY). 


CHAPTER I 
PREHISTORIC ITALY 


Introductory.—At first sight, prehistoric Italy offers little to hold 
the imagination captive. Italy, the home in historic times of a 
succession of artistically gifted races, yields from her earliest periods 
no such masterpieces of draughtsmanship as the reindeer drawings 
of Central Europe, or the marvellous paintings—long anterior, 
probably, to the earliest monuments of Egypt—that arouse our 
admiration on the walls of the caves of the Moustier, or of Altamira. 
Even for the epochs upon which legend first casts an uncertain 
light, her soil has revealed little to set beside either Minoan or 
Mycenean cities. What were once looked upon as prehistoric remains 
in Italy have proved to be of later date than might appear at first 
sight. ‘The belief once universally held in the high antiquity 
of these constructions has long been given up,” writes Dr. Thomas 
Ashby; the latest investigations at Norba, for instance, have 
shown that its walls, though amongst the oldest, cannot be dated 
further back than 500 3.c.; the imposing walls long famous as 
Cyclopean at Alatri, Segni, Anagni, are certainly no earlier than 
those of Norba, and belong to the Roman period; while others, 
like the fine enclosure of Ferentino, are considerably later, and 
others again, as we shall see, are of late Republican or even early 
Imperial date.' 


1 Attempts have recently been made to date to a remote antiquity a site like Gabi 
with its primitive arx, augural seat, rock cut road and fortified gateway of ““Mycenzan’’ 
type, but the pre-Roman Gabii belongs more probably to an early phase of the 
Etrusco-Latin civilization. For Gabii see Ashby in Roman Campagna, p. 134 f. 


VOL. I. I B 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


As late as the second millennium B.c., when the A:gean civilization 
was at its height and its products were being eagerly sought for in 
exchange for their own by the art-loving Egyptians, the Italic race 
was living in round huts thatched with straw in the pile settlements 
known as Terramare. Yet the student of Italic and Roman art who 
wishes to penetrate below the surface of things to their first origins 
can ill afford to neglect what the prehistoric settlements of Italy 
have to teach. Only here can he find the explanation of many of 
the phenomena that are most closely associated with the Roman, 
as distinguished from the Greek, development of Mediterranean 
art. 

§ 1. The Paleolithic Period—The period of the cave-dwellers . 
may be passed over here, as yielding in Italy little or nothing beside 
: few rough stone implements and ornaments from sporadic 

nds. 

There are, it is true, deposits in the caves of Liguria which are 
now recognized as being of Mousterian type; similar traces have 
been found at Falerii near Rome and likewise in Sicily, and mention 
must be made of the recently discovered but already celebrated 
Grotta Romanelli in Terra di Otranto, which actually boasts the 
wall engraving of a horse; but all this is too slight to be seriously 
considered as part of the origin of art in Italy. 

§ 2. The Neolithic Age.—In the neolithic, however, or new Stone 
Age, we find Italy inhabited by a race who not only knew how to 
polish stone, but who also made a certain rude pottery, decorated 
at times with simple linear patterns. This period, moreover, saw 
the birth of architecture; since here huts begin to appear by the 
side of cave dwellings. These primitive neolithic huts, which 
were circular with a cylindrical opening at the top for the smoke from 
the central hearth, develop in time into the capanna or cottage, 
with thatched roof, and doorway flanked by rough pilasters; this 
again was in time imitated in stone for the temple of Vesta and 
those other round temples and mausolea which impart so 
distinctive a note to Roman architecture. It is significant of 
the force of tradition that the shape of these neolithic huts is still 
retained by the peasants of the Roman Campagna for their straw 
capanne (Fig. 1). 

The most ancient burial-places found on Italian soil belong to the 
neolithic peoples. Within the tomb, the body was laid on its side 
with the knees somewhat bent, in imitation of a familiar pose of the 
living body during rest or sleep; while at other times it was seated 
with the knees drawn up, in a position which recalls that of the 
human feetus. The survivors who built the tomb were thus animated 


PREHISTORIC ITALY 


by a belief in resurrection and re-birth. The settlements of the 
neolithic peoples are thickest in the territories of Reggio in the Emilia, 
and of Picenum. Faint traces of their existence in their latest phase, 
when they apparently knew the use of copper (so-called eneolithic 
period) have been detected in Latium, in the Sabine country at 
Cantalupo, in the Montes Lepini at Sgurgola, and as far south as 
Alatri; and a large and interesting cemetery of this period belonging 
apparently to some important settlement may be studied at 
Remedello near Brescia. 

§ 3. The Bronze Age: Terremare Settlements——The coming of 
copper, contrary to what was once believed, is no longer associated 
with a change of race. From small eneolithic beginnings the 
Bronze Age gradually developed, but early in this bronze period, 
probably not later than 2000 n.c., a fresh influence representing 
a new people made itself felt in Italy. This race brought with 
it a system of pile construction (palafitte) derived from the lake 
dwellings of Central Europe, and, what is of great importance for 
the history of art, they introduced burial by incineration. With them 
the Italic peoples first make their appearance, while the older 
inhabitants, so far as they did not leave Italy altogether, were 
pushed up into the north-west region, where they survived, under 
the name of Ligurians, to historical times. The new-comers 
appear first in the valley of the Po, whence they gradually work 
south through the Emilia, where their settlements are thickest.! 
On dry land their pile dwellings were soon modified. The sub- 
stratum, for instance, was allowed to increase by the accumulation 
of rubbish till it formed a high base upon which the hut rose, much 
as in later times the Roman temple upon its high podium. The 
settlements thus formed are the famous ferremare, so called from 
a corruption of ferra marna, the name given by the peasants of 
certain districts toa particular soil which they found to have fertilizing 
qualities, and which was later.discovered to consist of mixed animal 
and vegetable refuse, with traces of human habitation. 

The terremare of Parma and Modena, which are among the 
most perfect, show an orderly ground-plan which in itself is a 
proof of advanced culture. For instance, the plan of the. terra- 
mare of Castellazzo near Parma (now covered up) recalls that of 
a Roman camp (Fig. 2). A main road, corresponding to the Roman 
decumanus, divides the settlement from East to West, and is cut 
at right angles from North to South by a second road corresponding 
to the cardo; other roads running parallel to these main thorough- 

1 For the puzzling settlement of ferramara type found as far South as Taranto, 


see Peet and Ashby in C.A.H., II, xxi, p. 570 and 572. 
3 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


PREHISTORIC ITALY 


fares divide the settlement into so many symmetrical parts. The 
enclosure differs only from that of the later camp in being trape- 
zoidal instead of rectangular, the former shape being adopted for the 
easier inflow of the water at the acute angle of the enclosure 
where it entered from a trench (C). To the right we observe 
an enclosed space which can only be explained as a réuevos, 
or templum, marked off by augural lines. Thus while the round 
neolithic hut recalls the simplest conception of the sky as a circle, 
or rather of the mundus with its sky-shaped dome, the quadrilateral 
habitation and settlement of the Bronze and Terramare age aimed 
at imitating that fourfold division of the sky which is produced by 
uniting its cardinal points. This quadripartite grouping of habita- 
tions was the rudiment, not only of the Roman camp, but of the 
Roman city. It was the plan according to which the sites of the 
Roman colonies were marked out throughout the Empire: its last 
word is Diocletian’s palace at Spalato. The first city on the Palatine 
followed its norm, and though at a later date Rome, owing to the 
difficulties presented by the undulations of her hills, could never 
adopt the quadrilateral principle in its perfection,! she yet imposed 
it far and wide. 


“The Roman augur who asked the will of Heaven marked off a square 
piece of sky or earth—his femplum—into four quarters; in them he sought for 
his signs. The Roman general who encamped his troops laid out their tents 
on a rectangular pattern governed by the same idea. The commissioners who 
assigned farming-plots on the public domains to emigrant citizens of Rome 
planned these plots on the same rectangular scheme—as the map of rural 
Italy is witness to this day’ (HAVERFIELD). 


These terremaricoli—as the inhabitants of the terremare are 
called—appear to have been an agricultural people. They pro- 
duced a surprising variety of implements and weapons of bronze; 
and a characteristic type of brooch in the shape of a violin bow, 
often found in their burial urns, which was doubtless used to pin 
the garments at the shoulder. The method of burial was invariably 
by incineration, the ashes being deposited in an urn covered with 
an inverted bowl. 

§ 4. Bronze Age (continued).—The richest prehistoric civilizations 
on Italian soil belong to the Bronze Age. They can best be studied 
in the finds of Sardinia, Sicily, South Italy, Malta, Gozo and Capri, 
and also on various sites of what was afterwards Etruria, always 
bearing in mind that the character of the tombs and other deposits 


1 See the significant passage in Cicero, de Lege agraria, ii. 35, 96. 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


varies considerably according to the locality. In Sardinia the 
reconstructions of Taramelli help us to realize this civilization 
in all its splendour from the days of the great nuraghs to the coming 
of the Etruscans. In Rome itself 
traces of this very early civilization 
were not known till three years ago, 
when trenches thought to have be- 
longed to a Bronze Age settlement 
were discovered on the Monte Mario. 
Unfortunately, modern building opera- 
tions on the site have effectually 
checked further investigation, so that 
no very sure conclusions can be 
drawn from these remains. 

§ 5. The Iron Age.-—Upon the age 
of Bronze followed that of Iron, 
which was brought into Italy towards 
the close of the period of the terre- 
mare by a people coming from the 


G3 AL-URN OF VILLANOVAN e 
TiO DE rom, Steaua North. The newcomers, whose chief 


centre was on or near the site of the 
later Bologna, are generally referred to as the Villanovan peoples, 
from the necropolis of Villanova near Bologna, where a large 
number of their characteristic remains were first discovered. Of 


paramount importance were the 
famous ossuaries, of similar shape 
to those already known to the 
terramaricoli but of a finer finish 
(above, p. 3). The so-called 
Villanovans, who seem identical 
with or akin to the pre-Dorian 
Hellenes, adopted from their 
predecessors on Italic soil many 
of their customs, but appear to 
have introduced a new system of 
inauguration facing East in place 
of the older system facing North.! 
The discovery of this change of FIG, 4.—THE SEPOLCRETO. 
ritual orientation is probably 

destined to throw much light on the early stages of Italic civili- 
zation. From the region of the Bolognese, the Villanovans spread 
to Tuscany, whence they gradually moved South to Veii, where a 


1See Rose, H. J., J.R.S., xiii. 1923, p. 89. 
6 


PREHISTORIC ITALY 


large number of their ossuaries was found some years ago (Fig. 3), 
and their traces reach, it is thought, as far as Rome. 
§ 6. The Seprolcreto of the Roman Forum.—So far the oldest site 


on Roman soil that has 
yielded finds with any 
claim to be considered in 
a history of art is the 
burial-ground on the East 
side of the Forum, the 
famous necropolis popu- 
larly known as the Sepol- 
creto (Fig. 4) discovered 
in 1903 near the Temple 
of Faustina, at a depth 
of about three metres be- 
low the present level of 
the Sacra Via. The latest 
burials date from about 
600 3s.c.; the rest range 


FIG. 5.—HUT-URN AND VASES FOUND IN SEPOLCRETO. 


over all the centuries back to perhaps the eleventh, and reveal faint 


traces both of Villanovan and early Etruscan civilization. 


The 


earliest pottery is rude and made by hand of local clay found in 


FIG. 6.—DOLIUM WITH BURIAL-URN. 
(Sepolcreto. ) 


the Forum itself. A group of these 
primitive pots, found enclosed in a 
large plain jar sunk into the tufa, is 
shown in Fig. 5. The most remark- 
able among them are the hut urns, 
which are round or oval in shape, 
in imitation of the primitive capanna, 
and which thus copy for the dead the 
cottage-hut of the living. They are 
mostly devoid of ornament, save for 
one example seen in the centre of 
Fig. 5, which displays on its door 
the symbolic swastiba, or ‘hooked 
cross.” Fig. 6 shows another jar or 
dolium with the burial urn at the 
bottom, and above it a number of 
smaller vases. No figurines have been 


found in the Sepolcreto, but personal ornaments occur which at 
this primitive stage doubtless have the value of amulets. Both the 
hooked cross and the amber prove commercial intercourse with 
foreign peoples, while a few small Greek vases of the class known as 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


Proto-Corinthian, poor and rough though these particular examples 
may be, show that between the eighth and the sixth century B.c., 
the age usually assigned to this class of pottery, the products of 
Greece were already known to the pre-Romulei of Giacomo Boni— 
the ancient race whose bones lie to this day deep below the historical 
level of the Forum. Since the primitive burial-ground must always 
be outside the settlement, that life may not be contaminated by 
the contact of death, it is evident 
that the Sepolcreto belongs to a 
period earlier than the Rome of 
history or legend, when the valley 
of the Forum, later the very heart 
of the city’s life, was a waste 
space outside it where burials 
were allowed. It was presumably 
used by the people of one or more 
of the settlements on the spurs 
of the surrounding hills, and, since 
inhumation and cremation are 
found here practically side by side, 
it may be that the Sepolcreto 
HIG. | -ceraribdie exoseeoureter belonged to a people of mixed race, 
(Conservatori.) representing that union of the 
Palatine and Quirinal settlements 
which constitutes a decisive stage in the growth of Rome. Who 
precisely were the peoples that thus united to form the first nucleus 
of the Urbs—they are generally identified as Latins and Sabellians 
—is a question still debated. Recent discoveries on Roman sites 
tend to show that they derived from a common Latin stock. 
Many of their characteristics persisted under the later Etruscan 
dominion, and though modified and shaped by repeated cultural 
vicissitudes, survived as an integral element of Roman civilization 
and art. The Sepolcreto ceased to be used somewhere between 
700 and 600 3.c., at the period probably when the various village 
communities were united into what is known as the Septimontium. 
Then the Forum, from being a waste outside the settlements, 
became the common meeting-place of the peoples from the sur- 
rounding hills; burials were forbidden and the old cemetery was 
levelled up and forgotten. 

§ 7. Other Prehistoric Burial-grounds near Rome.—The Sepolcreto 
isamong the most recently as well as the most systematically excavat- 
ed of a number of similar burial-grounds, but though possibly the 
earliest, it is not the only primitive cemetery on Roman soil. One 


PREHISTORIC ITALY 


that must have been of large size and have continued in use well 
into the historic period was on the Esquiline; but unfortunately 
its discovery—a mere accident of modern building operations—led 
to an indiscriminate excavation, conducted without scientific notes 
or observation. But among the finds of what must have been the 
earliest strata is a cabin urn decorated with a swastika, precisely 
similar to the one from the Sepolcreto. Together with the other 
Fsquiline finds it is now 
in the Palazzo dei Con- 
servatori (Fig. 7). Ob- 
jects from other prehis- 
toric cemeteries on the 
Quirinal and on _ the 
Viminal are exhibited in 
the same museum. Of 
two important sites close 
to the city—Antemne 
(near the Via Salaria, N. 
of the Villa Savoia) and 
Fidenze (on the site of 
Castel Giubileo) — only 
the very faintest traces FIG, 8.—BRONZE URN FROM FALERII VETERES. 
have been recovered. A re» 

number of Alban sites— 

Castel Gandolfo and others—have likewise yielded pottery and 
hut-urns similar to those of the Sepolcreto in the Forum. In 
the early Iron age, hut-urns of almost rectangular shape, though with 
curved roofs and ends, make their appearance. The beautiful hut- 
urn from Falerii Veteres, in the Villa Giulia, which is carried out in 
plates of bronze and decorated with a “string of pearls’’ pattern, 
seems fashioned exactly on the model of a primitive house, with 
beams intercrossing above the saddle-roof (Fig. 8). But it already 
belongs to the Etruscan period and may even be of foreign importa- 
tion. The reader who wishes to pursue these studies further will find 
that the Museo di Villa Giulia contains incomparable and well- 
arranged material from the prehistoric sites of Gabii, Capena, Falerii, 
and almost every important prehistoric site in the neighbourhood 
of Rome; but these belong to the domain of prehistory, and to discuss 
them in detail is not necessary for our present purpose. y 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Altmann, W., Die Italischen Rundbauten, 1906. Antonielli, M., Not. Scav., 1924 
(on latest discoveries at Albano);—ibid., 1926, pp. 210 ff. (tombs of Iron Age at 
Acquoria). Benedetti, F., Gli Scavi di Narce ed il Museo di Villa Giulia, 1900. 
Boni, G., Not. Scav., 1902, pp. 96-111 (description of the Sepolcreto). Bryan, 
W. R., Italic Hut Urns and Hut Urn Cemeteries (Papers Am. Acad. in Rome, iv. 
1925). Burkitt, M. C., Prehistory, 1921. Cambridge Ancient History, ch. xxi. 
(Peet, Ashby and others), 1924. Chierici, G., Le antichita pre-Romane della provincia 
di Reggio nell’ Emilia. Reggio, 1871. Coppi, G., Terramara di Gorzano, 1871. 
Cultrera, G., Architettura Ippodamea, 1924, pp. 123-140. Déchelette, Manuel 
d Archéologie préhistorique, i. pp. 289-300. Della Seta, A., Catalogue of the Museo 
di Villa Giulia, 1918;—Italia Antica, 1922. Von Duhn, F., Jtalische Graberkunde, 
1924. Falchi, I., Vetulonia e la sua Necropoli antichissima, 1891. Forrer, R., Real- 
lexicon der praistorischen hlassischen u. frithchristlichen Altertiimer, 1907;—Urgeschichte 
des Europaers von der Menschwerdung bis zum Anbruch der Geschichte, 1908. 
Graffunder: art. Rom. in P. W., 2nd ser. Groh, V. I., “Primordi di Roma” in 
Pont. Acc. Rom. Rend., 1924-25. Grenier, A., Bologne Véillanovienne et 
Etrusque, viliivé stécles avant notre ére, 1912. Gsell, S., Fouilles dans la Nécropole 
de Vulci, 1891. Haverfield, F., Ancient Town-Planning, 1913. Homo, L., L’Jtalie 
primitive et les débuts de l'imperialisme, 1925. Karo, G., ““Cenni sulla Cronologia 
pre-classica nell’ Italia Centrale” (Bull. Paletnogr. Ital., 1898, pp. 144 ff.). Karte, 
G., “Ein Wandgemalde von Vulci als Dokument zur romischen KGnigsgeschichte”’ 
(Jahrb. des k. deutschen Arch. Inst., xii. 1897, pp. 57 ff.). Lanciani, R., Ruins and 
Excavations of Ancient Rome, 1897 (pp. 110-116 for early Palatine settlements). 
Maclver, D. Randall, Villanovans and Early Etruscans—a study of the early Iron Age 
in Italy as it is seen near Bologna, in Etruria, and in Latium, 1924. Mariani, Bull. 
Com., 1896, pp. 1-60;—M. L., x. pp. 280-286 (Esquiline Graves). Mayer, M., 
Molfetta und Matera, 1924. Meyer, Ed., Geschichte des Altertums, i. 2, 54, p. 545, 
1901 (insists on the dependence of European civilization upon that of the Oriental- 
Egean peoples). Minto, A., Marsiliana d’Albegna, 1921;—Vetulonia, Necropoli 
Arcaica, Firenze, 1922. Mockau, H., Pfahlhaus und Griechentempel, 1910 (cabin- 
urns). Modestov, B., Introduction a l'histoire romaine, 1907. Montelius, O., La 
Civilisation primitive en Italie depuis l introduction des métaux, 1895-1910;—‘‘Pre- 
classical Chronology in Czeece and Italy” (Journ. of Anthrop. Inst., 1897, pp. 261- 
267);—Der Orient und Europa, 1899. Miller, S., L’Europe préhistorique, 1907. 
Myres, J. L., The Dawn of History, n.d. (ch. x. for prehistoric Italy). Nissen, H., 
Italische Landeshunde, 1883-1902. Panaitescu, E., “Fidenae”’ in Ephemeris 
Dacoromena, II., 1924. Peet, T. E., Stone and Bronze Ages in Italy and Sicily, 1909. 
Peet, Ashby and Leeds, ‘Western Mediterranean” in C.A.H., II., xxi. Piganiol, 
A., “Essais sur les origines de Rome” in B.E.F., 110, 1917;—‘‘Les Origines du 
Forum,” in Mélanges, xxvi., 1908. Pigorini, L., ““Terramare Castellazzo di Fonta- 
nellato” (Parma), (Not. Scavi, 1895, p. 9): ae | _Primitivi abitatori dell’ Italia” 
(Nuova Antologia, 16th Nov., 1911). Pinza, G., “Le Civilta primitive del Lazio” 
(Bull. Com., 1898, pp. 53 ff.); “Necropoli Laziali della prima eta del ferro” (Bull. 
Com., 1900, pp. 147 ff.); ““Monumenti primitivi di Roma e del Lazio antico” 
(Mon. Lincei, 1905); Bull. Com.,1912, pp. 15-97 (Esquiline Graves); cf. Bull. Com., 
1915 (1914) pp. 117-175;—Storia delle civilta antiche, 1923, Pottier, E., in Rev. 
Arch. xxiti., 1926, pp. 109-111 (Museo Pigorini). Rellini, U., “Sulle stazioni quater- 
narie di tipo chelléen dell’ agro Venosino” (Mon. dei Linc., xv. 2,{1915,'pp. 181-210); 

““Cavernette e ripari preistorici nell’ agro falisco”’ (Mon. dei Linc., xxvi. 5, 170). 


PREHISTORIC ITALY 


Ridgeway, W., The Early Age of Greece, 1901. Rose, H. J., “Patricians and 
Plebeians”’ and “The Inauguration of Numa” (J.R.S., xii., 1922, pp. 106 f., and xiii., 
1923, pp. 82 f.). Ruggiero, E. de, Lo Stato e le opere publiche in Roma antica. 
Torino, 1925 (p. 3 for the primitive Palatine). Sundwall, J., die Italischen 
Hiittenurnen, Abo, 1925. Sergi, G., Arii e Italici: Attorno all’ Italia preistorica, 
1898; The Mediterranean Race, 1901 (pp. 172-185, “‘the Italic problem’’). 
Taramelli, Not. Scav., 1919, pp. 113-187; Mon. d. Linc., xxvii. 1922, pp. 6 ff. 


(discoveries in Sardinia). [App.] 


N.B. p. 1. The quotation from Dr. Ashby may now be read in its full context 
in his ed. of Anderson & Spiers’ Architecture of Ancient Rome, 1927, p. 5. 

P. 4, fig. 2. The plan is from Peet, Stone and Bronze Ages (vid. Bibl.): A = 
moat; B = rampart; C = trench to bring in water; E = wooden bridge; F = 
platform (area limitata = templum); G = moat (fossa); H = bridge to platform; 
K = small trench with five ritual pits at bottom; L and M = cemeteries for 
cremation. 


11 


FIG. 9.—PROCESSIONAL SCENE (CONSERVATORI). 


CHAPTER I] 


ETRUSCAN AND EARLY GREEK INFLUENCE IN 
ROME 


§ 1. Etruria and the Septimontium in the Seventh Century—The 
culture of the primitive community on the Septimontium—corre- 
sponding roughly with the age of the earliest kings—was profoundly 
modified, it is thought, in the seventh century, or it may be some- 
’ what earlier, by the coming of the Etruscans of history, who contri- 
buted to the people of the seven hills the first enduring elements 
of civilization. The Romans themselves so fully believed in the 
Etruscan origin of their city that Romulus, the reputed founder 
of the Roma Quadrata of the Palatine, was said to have marked its 
limits with full Etruscan rites (Etrusco more); in other words, to 
have given it the quadrilateral shape of the ancient terremare settle- 
ments. Yet the origins of this extraordinary people are veiled in 
greater mystery than those of any other of the races that helped to 
form that complex unity which was Rome. The most generally 
accepted theory, which is as old as Herodotus, represents the 
Etruscans as an Asiatic people, who came from Lydia in consequence 
of displacements unknown to history, and made their way to the 
western shores of Italy, where, being already possessed of an advanced 
culture, they soon established a supremacy over the ruder Italic 
tribes. The date of their appearance in Italy has been variously 
placed, at about 1500 3.c. by Eduard Meyer for instance, and again 
as late as 1000 by Furtwangler, who would make them leave Asia 
Minor at the beginning of the Iron Age in Italy. More recent 
research seems to show that there is nothing distinctly Etruscan 
in Etruria before the ninth century B.c., while some authorities — 


ETRUSCAN AND EARLY GREEK INFLUENCE 


push down the period of the Etruscan expansion in Cental Italy 
to as late as the seventh or six centuries B.c. 

Etruscan influence in Rome is an established fact of paramount 
importance. But there were other peoples—now forgotten or else 
completely overshadowed by the greater fame of the Etruscans— 
whose cultural development must likewise have been of significance 
for that of Rome and Italy. Such, for instance, were the Faliscans, 
the ancient inhabitants of the ager Faliscus, a district N. of Rome 
which had Falerii Veteres (Civita Castellana) for its capital. It has 
recently been pointed out that the imposing rock facades of the tombs 
of Central Etruria, some of which have traces of well-carved friezes, 
differ from the Faliscan type, “which, though presenting some 
admirable and original though rare specimens of carved doorways, all 
belong to the portico form, and differ from the Etruscan type proper.” 
One school of modern archeology actually believes that the Etruscans 
owed more to the Faliscans than did the Faliscans to them. There 
must at any rate have been a thorough interpenetration of the two 
cultures, but by the time the Etruscans make themselves felt on 
Roman soil they seem to have absorbed the Faliscans, who survive in 
history only as a name. 

For a long period the Etruscans seem to have been content to 
remain on the North of the Tiber, forced perhaps into this position 
by that outpost of the Latino-Sabellian people which was to grow 
into the city of Rome. Recent excavations seem to show that at 
a very early date they advanced as far as the Monte Mario, where 
early Etruscan tombs, and what seem to be traces of an Etruscan 
settlement, were found on the top of the remains mentioned above 
as dating apparently from the Bronze Age (p. 6). 

§ 2. The Tarquins at Rome.—Exactly when, or how, the Etruscans 
came to cross the Tiber is uncertain. But at a date which, though 
legendary, seems fairly to accord with the facts, we find an Etruscan 
dynasty, the Tarauins, ruling at Rome and displacing the old kings of 
the Septimontium. Possibly the earliest Etruscan settlement was on 
the Capitol with its two hills, a locality which remained intimately 
connected with Etruscan religion and history and does not seem 
to have formed an integral part of the earlier city. Hence the 
Etruscans gradually spread, by peaceful absorption rather than by 
violent conquest, over the Septimontium, which they united into 
a city divided, for purposes of government, into four regions (the 
Servian city of legend). This city they surrounded with a pomerium 
or fosse, traced as always by the augurs, and probably also with a 
city-wall pierced at intervals by gates, to which we may attribute 
certain very ancient patches of masonry in the much later wall 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


formerly identified as the Servian. When the Etruscans had given 
material shape to the city they proceeded to endow it with all the 
gifts of art and architecture which they had brought with them 
from their original seats. For the rude mud ramparts and straw 
palisades they substituted walls of finished stone masonry, and 
for the primitive capanna with its hole in the centre for the smoke 
of the hearth, the solid stone xzdes or house, with atrium open to 
the sky. But the supreme gift which the Etruscans bestowed on 
the Romans was the theological system which gradually superseded 
and absorbed the simple animistic religion of the early settlers, 
who only knew the open-air worship of numina within sacred en- 
closures. The gods introduced by the Etruscans had to be housed 
within shrines and temples which, with the tomb or houses of the 
dead, are the forms of building upon which man has lavished his 
highest artistic ingenuity. And it was the Etruscans who impressed 
upon Roman architecture many of its most enduring characteristics: 
the high podium of the temples—the first assertion in Western 
Europe of the principle of verticalism—and the round tomb; both 
of these forms derive from the primitive terremare, to which the 
Etruscans imparted a monumental significance. 

§ 3. Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus—The earliest temple built by 
the Etruscans in Rome ranked first in importance to the end of the 
city’s pagan dominion. It stood on the Capitol and was dedicated 
to the supreme Etruscan triad of gods: Jupiter, Juno and Minerva 
(Fig. 10). To thisCapitoline cult of a celestial Triad corresponded the 
terrestrial Triad of Ceres, Liber and Libera, whose temple was near 
the Circus Maximus. 

The impressive remains of the Capitoline temple may still be seen 
in the garden of the Palazzo Caffarelli. The partial demolition of the 
Palace now makes it clear that what still exists is the podium of the 
original temple of the Tarquins.! The superstructure, calculated at 
about 204 < 188 Italic feet, has disappeared without leaving any trace, 
so that we are left to reconstruct it from the classic description of 
a Tuscan temple in Vitruvius, and from the vestiges of the various 
Capitolia which arose at a later date in different parts of Italy in 
imitation of the Roman Capitol. A spacious vestibule, with three 
columns on the side and six on the front, led to the three parallel 
cellas which together formed a square.2 The Capitoline temple 


1 The remains may now be conveniently seen in the new Museo Mussolini on the 
Capitol; those of the temple terrace in Room VIII, and those of the long wall 
which was part of the podium in the “passaggio del Muro Romano” which connects 
the new museum with that of the Conservatori. 

2 Owing to its importance, the Capitoline temple was long considered to be the 


ETRUSCAN AND EARLY GREEK INFLUENCE 


SSM NG SERE RERREUAERANSRRARS 


SSS 


W7777 7a 


x 


FIG. I10.—PLAN OF TEMPLE OF JUPITER CAPITOLINUS. 


15 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


was repeatedly destroyed by fire, yet it was always rebuilt on the 
original plan, though details may have been modified from time 
to time. The earliest decoration was in the brilliantly coloured 
terra-cotta, typical of Etrusco-Latin art. A quadriga of terra- 
cotta crowned the gable, but at this early date the gable itself was 
probably left open, and only the end of the central beam would be 
decorated with a group in relief, as may be seen on the instructive 
little terra-cotta model from Nemi in the Villa Giulia (p. 112). 

§ 4. The Statue of Jupiter: the Artist Volca—tThe large terra- 
cotta statue of Jupiter which stood in the central cella was entrusted 
to one Volca, an Etruscan artist from Veli, who is also said to have 
made the quadrigz of the roof. The Jupiter carried in one hand 
a thunderbolt; in the 
other a sceptre, both ob- 
jects being likewise of 
terra-cotta. The face, we 
are told, was coloured 
red; a fact which to later 
writers seemed to call for 
remark, but which is in 
accordance with the early 
custom of colouring the 
flesh of male statues a 
deep red, or else black, 
while that of female statues 

FIG. I1.—SARCOPHAGUS FROM CAERE (detail). was painted white. The 

(Villa Giulia.) statue appears to have 

been draped in real gar- 

ments consisting of a tunic embroidered with figures of Victory 

alternating with palm branches, worn under a purple mantle 

embroidered in gold. Statues of Juno and Minerva stood each in 
its own cella on either side of the Jupiter. 

The statues of the three Capitoline cellas have long disappeared, 
but we are not without monuments to help us to realize what they 
were like. Such are the magnificent recumbent groups that adorn 
the lids of the three sarcophagi from Cervetri; now preserved in 
the Villa Giulia (Fig. 11), the Louvre and the British Museum 
respectively. In all three examples the figures—a man and his wife 
—are of early fifth-century date, and show an evident kinship 


original Etruscan type, but it has been shown by Della Seta (Museo di Villa Giulia, 
121-126) followed by Ashby (R.A., p. 3), that the earliest Etruscan temples were 
oblong like the Greek and that the great width of cella of the Capitoline temples was 
not primarily Etruscan, but was imposed by the necessities of the triple cult. 


ETRUSCAN AND EARLY GREEK INFLUENCE 


with contemporary Greco-lonian sculpture. The bearded heads of 
the men may well resemble the Capitoline Jupiter, and those of the 
women, with their high pointed head-dresses and long oval faces, the 
Juno and the Minerva. Even the bodies, if we can imagine them 
as standing upright, provide useful elements for our reconstruction. 

§ 5. The Veientine Apollo and related Works.—The grand Apollo 
found at Veii in 1917—now a glory of the Villa Giulia—takes us a 
step further and throws a vivid light on the Veientine school, to 
which Volca, the author of the Capitoline Jupiter, belonged. In 
fact it seems reasonable to suppose that the Apollo was also a work 
of this Veientine artist, and that Volca 
was summoned to Rome because of the 
fame he had already acquired in his own 
country. In this now famous statue (Fig. 
12) we find that mingling of Greek and 
Italic elements which is so distinctive of 
Etruria in the sixth century, and which 
is also evident in the recumbent figures 
from Cervetri (Fig. 11). Much about 
the Apollo recalls contemporary Ionian 
art, but it is Ionian art transposed to 
another key. The forms are more robust, 
the movement more intense, the corporeity 
more emphatic, than is usual with the 
Greeks. The full round curls are not 
unknown to early Greek sculpture, but 
they are more specifically Italic. 

The work is full of beautiful detail: the ric. 12.—avrotto From ven. 
long oval of the face, the drawn-up sensuous ee oy 
mouth, the delicate nostrils are modelled 
with consummate knowledge, and so is the young and supple body 
seen through the clinging lines of the drapery. The colouring 
likewise is singularly attractive: the white slip used for the god’s 
garments has turned a pale ivory, and the deep brown of the flesh 
parts has the effect of bronze; the hair is black, the slanting eyes 
a vivid white with black pupils. The agile movement, the beauty 
of the forward stride—he has been well called the walking Apollo, 
l’ Apollo che cammina—can, however, only be fully appreciated 
when we mentally restore the Apollo to the group of which it once 
formed part. This group apparently represented a contest with 
Heracles for the possession of a sacred hind in the presence of 
Artemis amd Hermes. The finely modelled head of the Hermes 
has been fortunately preserved no part of the shoulders (Fig. 13). 

VOL. I. 7 c 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


§ 6. The Capitoline Wolf—Among other fragments of the Veien- 
tine group, that of the hind (Fig. 14) is of singular importance. 


ENYA IE So ATT LTTE NT TR LT ES 


a 
| 

S 

SMe | 
a 
ats ¥ 
he 
is 

- 

a3} 

i 

i 


FIG. 13.—HERMES FROM VEIL. FIG. I14.—FRAGMENT OF HIND FROM VEIL. 
(Villa Giulia.) (Villa Giulia.) 


The leanness of the wild creature, the fine tension of her skin, her 
delicate yet strong ossature, are both true to nature and finely 
decorative. Similar qualities may be observed in another master- 
piece of animal sculpture, 
the famous Capitoline 
wolf (Fig. 15), which, 
from its affinities to the 
hind, we can have no 
hesitation in attributing 
to the same school and 
possibly tothesamehand. 
We have seen that the 
master of the Veientine 
group was almost cer- 
tainly none other than 
_ Volca, and it was only 
fitting that the wolf, 
FIG. 15.—THE CAPITOLINE WOLF. fashioned to be the em- 
(Conservatori.) 
olem of the watchful 
power of the Roman 
state, should have been created within the same artistic cycle as 
the effigy of the supreme god of the Roman religion. 
The Wolf is probably the best known statue in the world, but 
it has been so vulgarized in myriads of reproductions that we are 


ETRUSCAN AND EARLY GREEK INFLUENCE 


apt to overlook its extraordinary merits as a work of art. The 
vigorous vitality of the silhouette, the manner in which the smooth 
dark bronze is made to convey the play of muscles under the taut 
skin, the fierce strength of the pose, the sinewy limbs, the grim 
and powerful head are hard to match in ancient art. To find a 
worthy parallel we should have to go to Egypt or perhaps to the 
masterpieces of Barye. According to the most recent investiga- 
tions, images of the Twins were an integral part of the original 
group, though the “Romulus and Remus” that we now see are 
restorations of the early Renaissance.! 

S 7. Other Temples of the Etruscan Period in or near Rome.—Of 
the innumerable temples and shrines that arose in and near Rome 
under the Etruscan kings, the Temple of Saturn at the foot of the 
Capitol was reputed next in date to that of Jupiter on the top of 
the hill, and as a fact a very old piece of the original foundation of 
cappellaccio? is still visible under its East wall. Its magnificent 
podium alone makes this temple one of the most impressive land- 
marks of Rome, but what we now see, though not as late as was 
once supposed, dates at the earliest from a reconstruction of the 
last century of the Republic, and the superstructure is again very 
much later. Near the Circus Maximus rose, as already noted, the 
Temple of Ceres, Liber and Libera, tripartite like that of the three 
Capitoline deities. The Temple of Diana on the Aventine, founded 
as the Roman Sanctuary of the Latin League, and that of Jupiter 
Latiaris on the Mons Albanus, which was the League’s religious 
centre, belong to the same era. It was possibly then also that a 
first temple was built on the shores of Lake Nemi in honour of an 
old tribal divinity of Woods and Flocks, the later Diana Nemorensis 
or Aricina of Roman mythology, with whom the cult of the Aventine 

1 According to Carcopino, the legend of the Twins was evolved from the presence 
under the wolf of a group, not of children, but of two small figures of men, personifying 
the alliance of the Romans, or people of the Septimontium, with their rivals the 
Sabines. These male adult figures shown under the tutelary totem of the Sabine 
tribes were afterwards mistaken for children. The group, then, is identical with that 
of the wolf and twins that was struck down by lightning in the year 65 B.c., having 
presumably escaped the fire of the year 83 B.c. After it had been struck, the wolf 
was probably buried (always according to Carcopino) in the favissz of the temple, to 
be re-discovered in the Middle Ages, when it was set up near the Lateran, whence it 
was brought back to the Capitol under Sixtus IV. Curiously enough, there are no 
copies or imitations of this group, which after all only means that it was buried and 
forgotten before the age of the copyists. Carcopino revives the theory that the wolf 
is Greek or directly inspired by Greek models (cf. J.R.S., xvi. 1926, p. 134); but 
the argument I| put forward in R.S. (1907, p. 30), of its Roman origin has been 
strengthened by subsequent discovery and by what has since been said by Della 


Seta, Giglioli and others (see my Scultura Romana, 1923, p. 4 ff.). 
° A rough tufaceous stone, generally greenish in colour, and very friable. 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


goddess was closely connected. I would conjecture that a plaque 
at Ny Carlsberg representing the murder of A¢gisthus by Orestes, 
which was found at Ariccia, whither Orestes was said to have fled 
after the murder, bringing with him the cult of Diana, reproduces 
a picture or relief that once hung in the temple. It is of Etrusco- 
or Latino-Greek character and illustrates the tendencies noted in 
the Veientine and Cervetri terra-cottas, though it may be later 
(Fig. 16). 

§ 8. Etruscan Rome: the Forum and Palatine, the Tullianum.— 
Further traces of the Regal period may be found in the Forum and 
on the Palatine, which, in virtue of their great historical significance, 
have been the most’ systematically excavated of any Roman sites. 
In the Forum, for in- 
stance, we may reckon as 
datable to the sixth cen- 
tury the two tufa pedestals 
supposed to have support- 
ed lions and to have 
flanked the ‘Tomb of 
Romulus’; the mysterious 
truncated cone near by, 
which may or may not 
have marked the tomb, 

[Photo. Furtwéngler, Gemmen. and the Z famous stele 

FIG. 16.—PLAQUE AT NY CARLSBERG. whereon is cut what is 

“perhaps the _ earliest 

fragment of Latin in existence” (but see p. 25). And there 

are remains of very early structures under the Comitium, at the 

Eastern end of the Forum under the Regia or old Palace of the 
Kings, and in the adjoining house of the Vestals. 

On the Palatine archeology has been found to confirm legend in 
a striking manner. The well-known blocks of cappellaccio at the 
South-West corner of the hill are clear evidence, says a distinguished 
modern historian, that ‘‘Rome’s tradition of a sixth-century Palatine 
wall, in fact of a complete city wall, must be correct.” Other 
remains, however, are too fragmentary and confused to help us to 
any vivid picture of the monuments within the citadel, till we come 
to the venerable circular pit, not far from the Scala Caci, which 
may be the ritual pit of the altar of the primitive Palatine settle- 
ment. It is well preserved and remarkably well constructed of 
rings of thin cappellaccio slabs lined with stucco. Close by is a 
_ second “‘cistern” or pit built of overlapping courses of stone in 
the manner of the Greek tholoi, ane perhaps retaining the original 

0 


ETRUSCAN AND EARLY GREEK INFLUENCE 


function of a tholos as a storing-house for treasure or grain. Another 
example of this type of vaulted structure discovered further East 
under the peristyle of the Flavian palace has a circular shaft in its 
floor leading to a short gallery, and seems distinctly suited to serve 
as an underground granary.! This method of vaulting by over- 
lapping concentric rings survived to historic times. Judging from 
the material employed, the best known of those constructions, the 
Tullianum or “wel!-house”’ at the foot of the Capitoline arx is as 
late as the third century. The Tullianum is a crypt of horse-shoe 
shape, originally accessible only through a hole at the top, and 
serving as a dungeon, or rather as a “death chamber’”’ if we are 
to follow the most recent authorities and to believe it identical with 
the prison house described by Sallust 
(Catilina, 35.3). 

Of approximately the same period, 
and built on the same principle, is 
the well near Tusculum. There are 
doubtless many more of these struc- 
tures forgotten underground and no 
longer accessible. In Italy, as in 
Greece, this primitive type of vault- 
ing long remained in use for storage 
cellars, and evidently also for prison 
cells and well-houses. 


§9. Arches: the Cloaca Maxima. 
—It is generally believed that the 
principle of the arch was introduced 
into Rome by the Etruscans, but 
it is curious that in Etruria itself the arch does not make its 
appearance before the fourth century, and then it seems somewhat 
inferior in beauty of construction to what we find in Rome at a 
much earlier date. A good example is provided by those early 
vaulted passages visible at several points in the Forum, recently 
pronounced by Ashby “to be by two or three centuries the 
earliest Roman arches in existence.” They are generally sup- 
posed to have spanned tributary branches of the Cloaca Maxima, but 
according to a more recent interpretation, their purpose was possibly 
to cover the altar drains necessary for carrying off the blood of 
victims. The best preserved of these passages, with its channelled 
ledge clearly visible on the right (Fig. 17), is on the West side of 
the Temple of Saturn, and was perhaps connected with the ancient 

1 This is the mundus of Boni. 


[Photo. Ashby. 
FIG. 17.—PRIMITIVE ARCH IN FORUM. 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME © 


altar of cappellaccio in front of the temple. It is remarkable for its 
finish, though it must be of fifth-century date like the early temple. 
The Cloaca Maxima itself which drains the Forum was the most 
famous of the engineering 
works attributed to the 
Tarquins (Fig. 18). It 
still survives, and part is 
actually in use to this day; 
its mouth may be seen just 
kelow the round temple 
cn the Tiber, with its three 
concentric rows of vous- 
solrs in peperino. It is 
thought, however, that 
the Cloaca of the Tar- 
quins was an open chan- 
[Photo. Ashby. nel,! and that what we 
FIG. 18.—MOUTH OF CLOACA MAXIMA, now see is not earlier than 
the middle of the second 

century B.C. or, according to others, as late as Agrippa. [App] 


§ 10. The Royal Walls—Of other monuments that may be 
definitely dated in the period of the Etruscan supremacy the walls 
attributed to King Servius have 
all but completely disappeared 
save for a few stretches built into 
the later structures and still visi- 
ble at different points. They 
were presumably destroyed in the 
capture of Rome by the Gauls in 
391 3.c., and the considerable re- 
mains, that so often pass as Ser- 
vian, belong to the rebuilding © 
after that event, or to later recon- 
structions of the Gallic wall. In 
the sixth and fifth centuries, a TIG. 19.—WALLS OF NORBA. 
number of Italic cities were, like 
Rome, fortified with walls and gates that vary in style according to the 
materials employed, but whose remains afford a vivid idea of the power 
and splendour of the period. About 600, or very slightly later, arose 
the polygonal fortifications of Norba with its rudimentary terracing 
(Fig. 19), and nearly contemporary are the walls and gateway of 


1Plaut., Curculio, 476, in medio propter canalem ibi ostentatores meri. See, 
however, Ashby, s.v. “Cloaca” in Top. Dict. 


22 


ETRUSCAN AND EARLY GREEK INFLUENCE 
Signia (Fig. 20) and the walls and platform of Alatri (Figs. 21 and 22). 


Nearer Rome, Antemnz, whose plan is thought to have exactly 
resembled that of the primitive Palatine city, has, like its neighbour 
Fidenz, all but totally disappeared, 
but we may still admire Ardea, 
with its fine tufa wall of opus quad- 
ratum, not forgetting Veli with the 
line of its magnificent acropolis high 
above the surrounding ravines. 
City walls may not seem altogether 
relevant to a history of art, but 
it must be remembered that in 
many instances they afford precious 
help for the dating of monuments, 
while their encircling lines con- 
ferred upon ancient, as later upon 
medizval cities, a definite contour, 
sadly lacking in our modern cities 
with their straggling suburbs. 
How aware the ancients were of 
the artistic possibilities of town [Photo. Ashby. 
walls is shown by the use so often FIG. 20.—GATE OF SIGNIA. 
made of them on coins and medals, 
as, for instance, on a lovely coin of the Gens Sulpicia that displays 
on its reverse the fortified enclosure of Tusculum. 
$11. The Decorative 
Arts under the Etruscans. 
—Under the dominion of 
the splendour-loving Tar- 
quins, the Roman parallel 
to the Peisistratids of 
Athens, Rome seems for 
a time to have shared in 
the civilization attributed 
to the age of the Tyrants, 
but there is little archzo- 
Photo. Min. Pub. Tote logical evidence of this in 
FIG. 21.—ACROPOLIS OF ALATRI (RECONSTRUCTION). Rome itself. To gain an 
impression of what the 
culture of the period must have been, we should turn to the 
rich finds of contemporary Etruscan tombs, or to those from 
Preeneste, the modern Palestrina. Here two chamber-tombs of 
the first half of the seventh century have yielded objects which 
mirror the tastes of a society at once luxurious and refined, such as 


23 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


we may suppose flourished at Rome under the Etruscan kings. These 
treasures are now conveniently exhibited in the Museo di Villa Giulia 
(Tomba Barberini) and at the 
newly arranged Museo Pigorini 
(Tomba Bernardini). Among the 
exquisitely fashioned objects of 
personal adornment are plaques 
of pure gold adorned with rows 
of tiny animals (sphinxes, lions, 
chimeras, human-headed lions, 
horses, etc., which are themselves 
decorated with granulated zig- 
zags and other patterns); fringes 
of silver-gilt ending in_ tiny 
ducks or doves; gold brooches 
and hair-pins, and small bossy 
disks with a ring at the back in- 
tended possibly as miniature votive 
shields. 

In spite of certain Greeco-Oriental details, these gold ornaments 
seem peculiar to Etruria and Latium, and the product of local 
goldsmiths. The silver utensils, on the other hand, belong to a 
class known elsewhere, and are possibly of Cypriote or Phcenician 
origin. They include jugs and wine-bowls, cups and dishes of 
great beauty, one of which, found in the Tomba Bernardini, dis- 
plays along its outermost frieze the strange adventures of a king 
who went out stag-hunting and was miraculously rescued fron the 
attacks of a gluttonous monster. The bronze furniture comprises 
an embossed cauldron set on a high and richly decorated stand; 
another has dogs looking 
over the rim into the 
bowl, and between them 
male winged figures acting 
as supporters; a deep 
bowl is decorated with 
sirens standing on bull’s 
heads, their wings and 
hair curiously strapped 
with narrow bands of 


FIG. 22.—WALLS OF ALATRI. 


FIG. -—HANDLE OF DAGGER. . J] * 
Sea pointillé. The various 


ivory objects are delicately 

carved in relief: the handle of a knife or dagger in the shape of 

a lion with a man stretched on his back (Fig. 23); others in 
24 


ETRUSCAN AND EARLY GREEK INFLUENCE 


the shape of a hand and forearm adorned with zones of animals in 
relief (Fig. 24), confirming what we know from literature of the 
importance of ivory in the period 
of the kings. Since the curule 
chair from which they exercised 
their functions was, it is said, of 
ivory, we may suppose it to have 
been carved after the fashion of 
the Przenestine handles, or of the 
exquisite plaque adorned with the 
procession of the Nile boat. 
These ivories and the scenes 
carved upon them are all of the 
sarne Orientalizing school as the 
silver bowls. 

Closely connected with the con- 
tents of the Prenestine tombs are 
those of the Tomba Regolini 
Galassi from Cervetri, in the 
Museo Gregoriano at the Vatican. = ea cos 
The clear kinship of all these ; 
groups of finds shows that at this date Latium and Etruria shared a 
common culture; but the Latinity of certain products was beginning 
to assert itself; for instance, a fibula of the period (in the Museo 
Pigorini), notable, moreover, for the beauty of its design (Fig. 25), 
is inscribed in very early Latin characters: ““Manios : med : fhe : 
fhaked : Numasioi’’—Manios made me for Numasios. This, the 
earliest Latin inscription on metal, is assigned to 600 B.c., and 
may even antedate the famous archaic cippus of the Forum. 


§ 12. Romano-Etruscan Statuary of the Fifth Century —A number 
of statues have been as- 
cribed to the period of the 
Tarquins or that imme- 
diately following. The 
wooden xoanon or image 
of Diana in her temple on 
the Aventine was said to 
have been brought from 


2 FIG. 25.—BROOCH MADE BY MANIOS. 
Phoczean Marseilles, and ihc Piooninic 


was thus possibly an imita- 
tion of the famous Artemis in Ephesos. The statue of Ceres for her 
temple near the Circus was, according to Pliny, of bronze. It was 


25 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


set up in 484 3.c., but so far it has not been traced in later 
adaptations or copies. More usually the cultus images would be of 
terra-cotta like that of Jupiter Capi- 
tolinus. When of stone they may 
have resembled the very archaic 
head of Juno found at Faleri Veteres 
on the site of the venerable temple 
of Juno Quirites, who, at a later date, 
also had a sanctuary in Rome. This 
head, which is in the Villa Giulia 
Museum, affords in any case a valu- 
able specimen of very early sculpture 
in peperino-tufa, though the rough, 
unattractive material must have been 
thickly coated with stucco which 
would afterwards be coloured. It is 
worked entirely in the round: the 
forms are distinctly Etruscan, in the 
hair are traces of a metal wreath or 
FIG. 26.—STATUETTE OF AUGUR FROM stephane and a hole for a nimbus. 
Pete nage The ears are pierced for earrings, and 
it is probable that a spearhead of 
bronze, found hard by, belonged to the warlike accoutrement of 
the goddess. We also hear of an equestrian statue of the maiden 
Cleelia, which it is proposed to recognize as the archaic prototype 
of the later Epona—a rider goddess of the Roman pantheon; of 
the statues of the three sibyls that stood near the Rostra; of 
that of the augur Attius 
Navius, and many others. 
The little statuette of an 
augur with Jituus or 
curved staff, found in the 
Forum (Fig. 26), may help 
us realize what these efh- 
gies of augurs were like. 
Etruscan art is often seen 
at its best in its small 
bronzes, as in that group FIG. 27.—ETRUSCAN PLOUGH. 
of the Museo di Villa (Villa Giulia.) 
Giulia, found near Arezzo, 
that represents a peasant driving his plough and oxen (Fig. 27). 
More delicately modelled than the augur, but also more conventional, 
is the draped figure of a male votary in Florence, which has also 


26 


ETRUSCAN AND EARLY GREEK INFLUENCE 


been called Vertumnus; genuinely 
Etruscan also, and connected perhaps 
with the School of Volca, is the 
beautiful bronze Hercules in the 
Museum of Este (Fig. 28). From its 
undoubted resemblance to the Apollo 
of Veli it may be yet another work 
of the Veientine School, a reduced 
copy in bronze, perhaps of a terra- 
cotta Hercules which Volca_ is 
said to have made for the old Cattle 
Market. 

The famous chariot found at 
Monteleone (in the north of the 
Sabine territory) and now in New 
York, and the bronze fragments of 
similar style from Perugia at Munich, 
are supreme examples of Jonio-Etrus- 
can relief in bronze. The bronze 
hanging lamp from Cortona (Fig. 29), 
with its frieze of Harpies and Sileni, 
shows the persistence of this archaic 
manner in a later period. Among 
other genuine Etruscan art products 
are the well-known horseshoe stele, 
often adorned with subjects of high 
religious significance, of which the 
Museum of Bologna possesses a 


FIG. 28.—BRONZE HERCULES. 
(Mus. of Este.) 


notable series. The Etruscan incised 
mirrors with mythological scenes 
are familiar objects in almost every 
collection. 
appearance about 500 z.c., and in 
composition and delicacy of out- 
line are worthy rivals of con- 
temporary Greek vase-painting. 
Greek vases themselves were largely 
produced for the Etruscan market, 
and the appreciation which the 


They make their first 


FIG. 29.—THE LAMP OF CORTONA. Etruscans showed of these incom- 


27 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


parable shapes and designs is in itself a proof of their sensitiveness 


to the beautiful. 


Long after the political power of Etruria had ceased to exist, 


FIG. 30.—TOMB-PAINTING AT VEIL. 


Etruscan art continued to 
flourish and to develop new 
and original characteristics 
unknown to Greece, but 
which strongly influenced 
the neighbour art of Rome, 
centuries after Rome had 
shaken off the Etruscan 
yoke. The treatment of 
relief on Etruscan sepul- 
chral urns of the third to 
the second centuries B.c. 
has traits that reappear in 
Imperial art, and it is evi- 
dent that compositions such 


as adorn the sarcophagus from Torre San Severo at Orvieto (D.S. 
321) must have helped to shape the sarcophagus reliefs of Imperial 


Rome. The true spirit of Italian art 
stirs in ancient Etruria, and travel- 
ling along we know not what mys- 
terious hidden paths becomes mani- 
fest again, as has recently been shown, 
in Michael Angelo and the Baroque. 
Who can look at the marvellous 
winged genii that guard the sarco- 
phagus of Arnth Velimna (D.S. 325) 
in the tomb of the Volumnii without 
feeling in the presence of an art that 
preannounces the prophets and sibyls 
of the Sistine Chapel ? | 

§ 13. Painting of the Period—No 
traces of painting of a very early 
period have so far been found in 
Rome. The oldest example—from 
the Tomba Campana at Veii—is in a 
style that has affinities with the proto- 
Corinthian vases of the seventh-sixth 


FIG. 31.—TOMB-PAINTING FROM 
CERVETRI. (Louvre.) 


v 
£ 


century B.c. The main scene, showing a young horseman surrounded 

by his servitors, is generally interpreted as the ride of the dead 

man to the other world (Fig. 30); and seeing the highly mystical 
28 


ETRUSCAN AND EARLY GREEK INFLUENCE 


character of all Etruscan painting, this is probably correct. Slightly 
later in date are the painted terra-cotta plaques from Czre (Cer- 
vetri), of which the Louvre possesses one series (Fig. 31) and 


the British Museum another. 
These plaques, which were in- 
tended for insertion into the 
walls of tombs, are covered with 
a creamy white slip on which 
the design is first traced with a 
pointed tool and then filled in 
with colour. The scenes repre- 
sented have never been entirely 
explained, but they seem con- 
nected with the ritual of the 
dead or with beliefs as to their 
ultramundane destiny. The 
figures have the characteristic 
Etruscan forms, though the 
general scheme of decoration 


FIG. 32.—TOMB-PAINTING AT CORNETO. 


seems influenced by Grzeco-Ionian models. Ionian influences are also 
evident in the wall paintings of the Tomba dei Tori at Corneto, 


FIG. 33.—TOMB-PAINTING AT CORNETO. 


beauty’’), which the Emperor 


especially in the scene of Troilos 
and Achilles (Fig. 32), while a 
more advanced stage of Etruscan 
painting reflects the manner of 
Attic black-figured vase pictures, 
as, for example, the frieze of 
revellers from the Tomba della 
Pulcella, likewise at Corneto.. The 
paintings that were admired in the 
Latin temple of Ardea must have 
had the same character. Thus 
the head of a woman, as exquisite 
as any drawing on a Greek vase 
(Fig. 33), from the Tomba dell’ 
Orco at Corneto, can help us to 
realize the beauty of the “Helen 
and Atalanta’ in the Temple of 
Lanuvium (possibly from a group 
representing a ritual “contest for 
Caligula so passionately coveted, 


and which he doubtless would have taken for his own collection, 
had not the nature of the plaster made the removal impossible. 


29 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


At Ardea, likewise, Pliny saw mural! paintings which with antiquarian 
enthusiasm he declared older than Rome, and it may be one of these 
paintings which Servius refers to as representing Capaneus struck by 
lightning. And of the fifth century, or possibly earlier, must have 
been those paintings, the inscriptions of which Quintilian copied as 
illustrations of archaic spelling. He tells us they were to be seen 
in “famous temples,’’ so that they were presumably wall-paintings, 
and their subjects were Paris and Cassandra (Alexanter et Cassantra), 
Hecuba and the Nurse (Hecoba et notrix), Medea (Culchides) and 
Polyxene (Pulixena). It is interesting to note already at this 
early date the predilection for subjects drawn from the Trojan 
cycle. 

§ 14. The Hellenization of Rome.—The Etruscans were doubtless 
responsible for the first Hellenization of Rome, whose pre-Etruscan 
inhabitants had been too primitive to profit seriously by contact 
with the civilization of the Greeks. The Etruscans, on the other 
hand, brought with them to Rome and Latium the intelligent and 
sympathetic knowledge of Greece, of a highly cultured people, 
so that what before had been mere accidental contact, due to the 
chances of commerce, now became a spiritual asset. This new 
attitude to Greece was soon symbolized by the introduction into 
Rome of the Sibylline books, those prophetic leaves of Apollo said 
to have been brought to an Etruscan Tarquin by the Cumean Sibyl 
herself. The story has a strange historic significance, for the 
Tarquins themselves, whose ancestor Damaratus had fled from 
Corinth towards 630 B.c., had already introduced a fresh wave of 
Greek influence distinct from the Greek elements which the Etruscans 
had brought from their native seats. The Sibyl of Apollo represents 
a third stage in this Hellenization of Latium and Rome; she stands 
for an influence coming from the rich and cultured Magna Grecia, 
and more specially from Cume, where Apollo was the chief divinity 
and the centre of a famous cult. But Apollo was also the god of 
Troy, so that the connection of the Sibyl with Rome means Apollo’s 
protectorship of the Romans as Troy’s descendants. Rome showed 
her genius in striving to enter the Greek cycle in virtue of this 
Trojan descent, and in claiming a place among cultured peoples as 
her birthright. This happened long before Ennius first gave literary 
and poetic form to the legend of the Trojan origins of Rome. 
Though often said, all this cannot be too much insisted on in any 
study of the growth and development of Roman art. 

The ‘“‘coming of the Sibyl,” to use Carter’s picturesque phrase, 
had a significance for the religious development of Rome which 
was at once mirrored in its artistic products. She came upon the 


ETRUSCAN AND EARLY GREEK INFLUENCE 


stage under Etruscan auspices, but she worked for the introduction 
into Rome of those Greek influences, which in time undermined 
the Etruscan. Soon the Etruscan manner became synonymous 
with “‘old-fashioned.”” Though few monuments of the period 
have survived, there is enough to confirm what the barren lists of 
the annalists and the more glowing accounts of the historians tell 
of the growing influence of Greece. Thus in 496, when a bad harvest 
and the difficulty of obtaining supplies from abroad in war-time were 
seriously affecting the Roman army, the augurs consulted the 
Sibylline books, and at their bidding introduced the cult of the Greek 
gods of increase—Demeter, Dionysos and Kore—who were at once 
identified with the Roman Ceres, Liber and Libera in their temple 
near the Circus. On this occasion the temple, which, as we have seen, 
was in the Etruscan manner and dedicated to an Etruscan Triad, was 
apparently redecorated by Greek artists summoned for the purpose. 
Their names, Damophilos and Gorgasos, were taken from the Greek 
metrical inscription which recorded that ‘“‘on the right hand were 
the works of Damophilos, on the left the works of Gorgasos.’’ Both 
names are Dorian, and suggest the influence of the powerful Dorian 
colony of Taranto which afterwards sent so many works of art to 
Rome. Our informant goes on to add that before this all the 
decorations of temples used to be in the Tuscan style; the temple 
decoration, therefore, seems to embody a reaction from an old form 
to a new, i.e. from the outworn Etruscan to the newer Greek manner. 
We have another striking example of this new influence in the 
temple dedicated in 484 b.c. on the east side of the Roman Forum to 
the Greek saviour gods—the divine Twins who, after the victory of 
Lake Regillus, had stopped to water their horses hard by at the spring 
of Juturna. The date assigned to the legendary account is confirmed 
by the remains of early fifth-century masonry of soft grey-green 
cappellaccio existing under the later Republican and Imperial 
restorations of the temple, and by the archaic character of the 
statues of the Dioscuri which were set up on a pedestal within the 
Lacus Juturne. These statues themselves, to judge from the few 
fragments and the fairly well-preserved head of a horse, have nothing 
Etruscan about them, but are products of the Greek schools of 
Southern Italy. The same may be asserted of an archaic torso of 
Apollo found in the Jacus and now set up in a niche near by. This 
torso, we may add, has a further interest owing to its probable 
connection with Regillus, which was close to Gabii, where Apollo 
had a cult. 

In 431 3B.c., once more by command of the Sibylline books, a 
temple was erected near the Circus Flaminius in honour of Apollo 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


the Healer, that he might stay a plague. Though the story itself 
bears a suspicious resemblance to that of Apollo the Averter of Evil, 
whose statue was rededicated about the same time in Athens, also 
on the occasion of a plague, the date is corroborated by a core of 
fifth-century cappellaccio still visible below the cloisters of Santa 
Maria in Campitelli within later foundations on what we now safely 
believe to have been the site of the temple. Apollo being a foreign 
deity, his temple stood, like that of Ceres and like the temple to 
Mercury (built on the slope of the Aventine at the instigation of the 
Sibyl as far back as 495), outside the pomerium, and there Apollo 
remained till Augustus brought him to the Palatine and set him up 
between Latona and Diana as a rival of the old celestial Triad on the 
Capitoline hill opposite. 

The influence of this early Apolline centre can scarcely be over- 
estimated. It was within its precincts that ““Rome’s early dramatic 
verformances were given,’ and hence also spread a knowledge of 
Hellenic cults and rites which gradually reshaped Rome’s religious 
practices, and was certainly not without influence on the arts. 

§ 15. Decline of Etruscan Power: the Fall of Veii—Thus as the 
star of Greece rose, that of the Etruscans began to pale. Some- 
where before 388, the date of the Gallic invasion, the Etruscans 
went out of Rome. Legend says in 510; but the expulsion of the 
Tarquins, represented by later historians as taking place in that 
year, probably meant nothing more than a movement among the 
ruling classes, followed by a change of government. The Etruscans 
loosened their hold over Rome by slow degrees in order to defend 
their original territory against the inroads of the Celtic tribes from 
the North; but their influence lasted down to the Gallic catas- 
trophe, long surviving their political rule, and making itself felt by 
the side of the Greek. 

The final conquest, in 396 B.c., of the beautiful and prosperous 
Veli after a war of ten years’ duration, meant the absorption by 
Rome of fresh Etruscan elements rather than their destruction. 
Had not the miraculous image of the great Veientine goddess by 
inclination of the head—or, as some assert, by actual speech— 
graciously signified her willingness to move her seat to Rome? 
and had not the Romans transferred her with every pomp of cere- 
mony and every mark of honour to a new and glorious temple on 
the Aventine? At the same time the fall of Veii also betrays the 
workings of Sibylline influence, for the victory was attributed to 
the protection of the Delphic Apollo, to whom a tripod of gold 
was sent as thank-offering. Already the god of light was working 
in a thousand mysterious ways for the destruction of Rome’s enemies 


32 


ETRUSCAN AND EARLY GREEK INFLUENCE 


and rivals, that in time the city by the Tiber might become the seat 
of the arts over which he presided. But all this was not yet. 
Meanwhile at Rome arts and crafts were still largely in the hands 
of the Etruscans; a street on the East of the Capitol was called 
the Vicus Tuscus, after the Etruscan artisans who lived in its crowded 
neighbourhood; their name clung to the north bank of the Tiber: 


“Vidimus flavum Tiberim retortis 
Litore Etrusco violenter undis 
Ire deictum monumenta regis 
Templaque Vestz.” 


This bank was still called after the Etruscan Veii as late as the 
principate of Vespasian, as we learn from the phrase ripa veientana 
inscribed upon two terminal cippi (C.I.L. vi. 31547, 85); and the 
proudest boast of Mecenas, friend of the emperors and poets who 
made the Roman Empire, is that his race is sprung from the loins 
of Etruscan kings. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Note. Many of the books cited in the bibliography of Chap. I are useful also 
for Chap. II. 


A. Works relating to the cults and the monuments of Rome under the Etruscan dominion. 


Albert, M., “Le Culte de Castor et de Pollux en Italie” (B.E.F.), 1883. 
Ashby, T., P.B.S.R., iii., p. 14 (Antemne). Boni, G., “The Niger Lapis in the 
Comitium at Rome’”’ (Archeologia, 57, 1900, p. 175). Deecke, W., Etrushische 
Forschungen, 1875-9. Deecke, W., and Pauli, C., Etruskische Forschungen und Studien, 
1881-3. Degering, H., “Ueber Etruskische Tempel” (Kon. Ges. d. Wiss. Gottingen, 
1897, p. 137). Delbriick, D., Das Capitolium von Signia; der Apollotempel anf 
dem Marsfelde in Rom, 1903. Dennis, G., Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, 1878. 
Ducati, Pericle, Etruria Antica, 2 vols. 1925 (a short but exhaustive treatise of the 
first importance, with full bibliographies). Durm, J., Baukunst der Etrusker und 
Romer. Fell, R. A. L., Etruria and Rome, 1924. Frank, Tenney, Roman Buildings 
of the Republic (Tullianum, p. 39 ff.);—and G. Stevens, ‘The First and Second 
Temples of Castor at Rome,” in Mem. Am. Ac. Rom., v. 1925. Gatteschi, G., in 
Roma, 1926, pp. 337-345 (Mundus). Haugwitz, E., Der Palatin, 1901. Lugli, G., 
Mem. A.P., I, 1923, p. 264 (Monte Cavo). Merlin, A., “L’Aventin dans 
l’Antiquité,” in B.E.F., 1906, 153-155. Modona, A. N., Cortona Etrusca e 
Romana nella storia e nell’ arte, Firenze, 1925. Morpurgo, L., ‘‘Nemus 
Aricinum” (Mon. Ant., xiii., 1903, pp. 297 ff.). Miiller, K. O., Die Etrusker, 1877. 
Pasqui, C., Not. Scav., 1900, p. 53 (for Ardea, cf. Ashby in E.B. sub voce w. bibl.). 
Piganiol, A., “Les Origines du Forum’ (Mélanges, 1908, pp. 233 #.). Pigorini, L., 
““Perché la prima Roma é sorta sul Palatino” (Archiv. Stor. per la Sicilia Orientale, 
xvi., 1921). Pinza, G., “Monumenti Primitivi di Roma e del Lazio Antico” (Mon. 
Linc., xv., 1905). Savignoni, L., and Mengarelli, R., Not. Scav., 1901, p. 514 ff. 
(Norba). Seymour, F., Up Hill and Down Dale in Anctent Etruria, 1910. Wiegand, 

“Le Temple Etrusque d’aprés Vitruve” (Glypt. Ny. Carlsberg, II., Mon. 
Cae pp. | ff., with bibliography). Winnefeld, H., “Antichita di Alatri” 
(R.M., iv. 1889, 126 ‘f.). Wissowa, Religion, p. 294 (Temple of Apollo) ; 7b. p. 297 
(Temple of Ceres Liber and Libera). 


VOL. I. 33 D 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


B. Etruscan Art (Special Works). 


Anti, C., “L’Apollo che cammina” (Boll. d’Arte, 1920, pp. 73-80). Brunn, H., 
and Korte, G., Rilievi delle urne Etrusche, 3 vols., 1870-1916. Campanile, T., 
“Statuetta di Eracle in Bronzo d’Arte Etrusca”’ (Boll. d’Arte, 1924, pp. 453 ff.). 
Carcopino, J., ““La Louve du Capitole,” 1925 (from Bulletin de l Association 
Guillaume Bude). Conway, R. S., and Casson, S., “Italy in the Etruscan Age,” in 
C.A.H., IV., 1926, xxii. (Section 8, p. 421, on Etruscan Art, by Casson). Cultrera, 
G., ‘‘Arte Italica e limiti della questione Etrusca,” 1927 (reprint from Vol. I. of 
Studii Etruschi, 1927). Curtis, C. D., ““The Bernardini Tomb” (Mem. Am. Acad. 
Rom., iii., 1919) ;—‘‘ The Barberini Tomb,” (ib., v., 1925). Della Seta, “Collezione 
Barberini,” (Boll. d’Arte, 1909). Ducati, P., “Le Pietre Funerarie Felsinee”’ 
(Mon. Linc., 1910, pp. 362 ff.); Storia dell’ Arte Etrusca, 2 vols., 1927. van 
Essen, C.C., “Chronologie der Latere Etruscische Kunst” (Mededeelingen, VI., 
1926) ;—Did Orphic influence on Etruscan Tomb-paintings exist? 1927. Furt- 
wangler, A., Die Antiken Gemmen 1900, iii., p. 187 ff. Gerhard, Ed. (Kliigman, 
A., and Korte, G.), Etrushische Spiegel, 5 vols., 1840-1897. Giglioli, G. Q., “Statue 
Fittili di Eta Arcaica rinvenute a Veio” (Not. Scav., 1919, pp. 13-37) ;—“Vulca” 
(Rassegna d'Arte, xx., 1920, pp. 33 ff.);—“Sculture in Terracotta Etrusche 
di Veio” (Antike Denkmaler, 1926). Hausenstein, W., Die Bildnerei der Etrusker, 
1925. Korte, G., art. “Etrusker” in Pauly-Wissowa. Martha, J., L’Ari Etrusque, 
1889. Milani, L. A., Museo Topografico dell’ Etruria, 1898 ;—Monumenti Scelti del 
R. Museo Archeologico a Firenze, i., 1905;—J1 R. Museo Archeologico di Firenze 
(Pl. 29 bronze Augur). Neugebauer, K. A., Antike Bronzestatuetten, Berlin, 1921. 
Pinza, G., and Nogara, B., “Tomba Regolini Galassi’ (Mus. Etr. Gregor.: 
Materiali per la Etnologia antica Toscano-Laziale, i., 1915). Poulsen, F., Etruscan 
Tomb Paintings, 1922;—Aus einer alten Etruskerstadt, 1927. Rosi, G., in J.R.S., xv., 
1925 (Rock facades of Central Etruria). Rumpf, A., Wandmalereien in Veii, Leipzig, 
Diss., 1915. Seemann, T., Die Kunst der Etrusker, 1890. Taylor, L. Ross, Local 
Cults in Etruria in Vol. II of Papers and Monographs of the Amer. Acad. in Rome, 
1923. Weege, F., “Etruskische Graber mit Gemalden in Corneto” (Arch. Jahrb., 
1916, pp. 105 ff.) ;—Etruskische Malerei, 1921. 


C. The Faliscans. 


Giglioli, G. Q., Not. Scav., xxii., pp. 179-263 (Faliscan necropolis at Vignanello). 
Holland, L. A., “The Faliscans in Prehistoric Times” (Papers and Monographs of the 
Am. Acad., 1925). 


1 Cultrera believes the Etruscans to be a conquering minority, responsible for the 
introduction into Italy of new Greco-Oriental influences, which the older Italic 
inhabitants absorbed into their culture, the culture remaining essentially Italic. I 
have not been able to avail myself of this paper for Chap. II, nor of the papers read 
at the Etruscan conference held at Florence last year, which are only just published 
(see Studii Etruschi, Vols. I and II, 1927.) Still less could I make use of the papers 
—many of them of the highest importance—read at this year’s (1928) Etruscan 
conference. 


34 


FIG. 34.—PONS AMILIUS AND TEMPLE OF ZSCULAPIUS. 


CHAPTER III 


FROM THE FALL OF VEIT AND THE SACK OF ROME 
Mien TO THE CLOSE OF THE SECOND 
CENTURY B.C. GROWTH OF GREEK INFLUENCE 


§ 1. The Fourth Century: the Gallic Siege and the Rebuilding of 
Rome—Temples—Walls and Roads—The Roman Coinage.—-An event 
now took place which was to prove of paramount significance in 
the history of Rome and of its art. At the beginning of the 
century the Gauls, who had long proved troublesome to the 
Etruscans north of the Tiber, began to menace the Roman territory. 
In 388 they took and sacked Rome, whose inhabitants are said to 
have deserted her, so that the Romans, after their return, had to 
set about rebuilding their city on a grander and more solid scale. 
The Gallic siege is thus held to have marked the real beginning of 
the Urbs, and to have had the same consequences for the buildings 
of Rome as the Persian invasion for those of Athens. But while 
the whole Acropolis bears witness to the splendour of Athenian art 
in the fifth century, the Rome rebuilt by its citizens after the Gallic 
catastrophe has left fewer traces of itself than any other, and we 
are thrown back upon the annalists and the historians for a picture 

of its monuments, a picture which research does not, however, 

- confirm in every particular. Rome, in matters of building, has been 

compared to a palimpsest, but it is one of which the original script 

is often hard to decipher. The destruction of the city had possibly 
3 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


not been as thorough as it is represented by the historians. From 
a passage in Cicero (see p. 5, note) we gather that in the first 
century B.c. Rome was still a place of narrow tortuous streets, of 
lanes and crowded passages, of tall buildings, with no leading design. 
Neither after the Gallic catastrophe nor at any other period of her 
history was Rome as a whole built on any regular system; we have 
already seen that this was in large measure due to the undulations 
of her hills, and in 388 there was no time in which to think of 
town-planning. In many instances those who had left their old 
homes returned to them, while others had probably never left them 
at all. Thus many streets remained much as they had been, and 
rebuilding would be conducted piecemeal and probably confined to 
isolated monuments. Here again we may establish a comparison 
with Athens, of which it has been said that, “alike in the days of 
Themistocles and Pericles and in all its later history, Athens was 
an almost Oriental mixture of splendid public buildings with mean 
and ill-grouped houses’* (HAVERFIELD). 3 

In this respect Rome probably never altered appreciably, though 
under the Emperors, and especially under Nero (p. 175), as we 
shall see, large patches were reclaimed, which were artificially 
levelled and planned on a regular pattern. 

Attention was first bestowed on the temples of the gods. We 
hear of the temple of Juno Regina on the Aventine, begun in 392 B.c. 
to lodge the famous Veientine goddess, and either not destroyed 
in the Gallic catastrophe or finished after the return of the Romans; 
of a temple of Mars Ultor outside the Porta Capena, vowed in 
388 b.c. at the most critical time of the Gallic invasion; of the 
first temple of Concord, put up in 366 B.c. to commemorate the recon- 
ciliation of the Patrician and Plebeian orders effected by the 
Licinian laws; but all these have disappeared under later rebuildings. 
Of the later temple of Juno Moneta on the Arx, vowed in 344 z.c. 
by Lucius Furius Camillus, one terra-cotta antefix seems to be all 
that remains. It was naturally a time of great engineering activity, 
when city walls had to be restored and roads to be made. Of the 
post-Gallic walls, long stretches may still be seen at various points; 
by the railway station, for instance, where a section nearly 300 feet 
long is still standing; but of the numerous gates there are no traces 
that can be pointed to with certainty. Of prime importance are the 
great roads which, from the fourth century onwards, were con- 
structed to connect Rome with her annexed territories and to facili- 
tate commerce. The Via Latina, probably the oldest road, purposely 
called Via in distinction to the old tracks between Rome and the 
Alban Hills, is contemporary a the gradual establishment of 


Bate itie tO SECOND CENTURY B.C. 


the Latin league, and seems to have been finished as early as 370 z.c.; 
of the beautiful tombs that bordered it we shall have occasion to speak 
later on(Vol. II., p. 126). The viz are among the great gifts bestowed 
by Rome upon the world. As works of engineering they may 
appear to have little to do with our subject, but it was along their 
paved tracks! that travelled the currents of civilization—of art and 
religion and trade—to be absorbed and transformed and then 
disseminated anew over the world. The common comparison of a 
road to an artery is eminently true in this instance, for the Roman 
vie are like the arteries of a living organism that carry blood to the 
heart and back again to the whole body. The road system soon 
spread from the neighbourhood 
of Rome to the whole of Italy, 
till under the Empire the Orbis 
was covered with its network. 
The roads, we must always re- 
member, made possible the early 
advent of Christianity to Rome, 
its centralization in the Eternal 
City and its rapid diffusion. 
Here again art was the gainer: 
the pilgrim roads of medieval 
Italy, following the ancient 
tracks closely if not always 
exactly, became the great | 
thoroughfares of art and civili- FIG. 33.—ROMAN BRONZE AS. 
zation in the Middle Ages. (British Museum.) 

§ 2. Greek Influence and the 
Roman Coinage—The Samnite Wars, 343-290 3.c.—Campanian 
Influence—The Via Appia—The Capuan Mint—The Temple of 
Salus—The Castrum of Ostia—Greek influence continued to 
increase everywhere; in the dearth of monuments the earliest 
coinage of Rome bears ample testimony to its persistency. The 
circular bronze pieces (as grave) coined within the first mint 
(moneta) erected within or close to the precinct of Juno on the Arx, 
though essentially Roman products, betray, rough though they be, 
a certain Greek influence in the heads of the obverse (Janus for the 
AS, Fig. 35; Minerva, Jupiter, etc., for its denominations). 
The design of the reverse, the prow of a ship, is thought to have ~ 
a direct allusion to the victory of Antium (338 B.c.), which had 


1]t has been acutely remarked that the fitting of the blocks of lava to make a 
continuous road was practically an art, for the road might be described as stone 
masonry laid flat. 

37 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


been commemorated in the Forum by affixing the beaks of the 
enemy’s ships to the Orators’ platform, hence called the Rostra. 
Antium indeed had ended the great Latin war. The prestige of 
Rome, so shaken by the Gallic catastrophe, was restored; the old 
Latin league was now dissolved, and Roman hegemony established 
in its place. Of all this these rude coins remain the sole visible 
monuments. 

The Samnite wars, which lasted with short intervals from 343 to 
290 z.c., were of incalculable significance for the subsequent develop- 
ment of art in Rome and Italy. They were fought to uphold the 
ideals of the city state against tribal organization. To quote Niessen 
and Furtwangler, Rome stands out in this conflict as the champion 
of civilization against the feudal system of the clans. Her victory, 
which meant the Latin- 
izing of Italy, was also to 
bring the Latin civilization 
into close and direct con- 
tact with that of Greece, 
and the process of Greek 
infiltration made itself felt 
from the first. The strug- 
gle with Samnium was 
ostensibly for the posses- 
sion of the rich and fertile 
plain of Campania, which 

(Photo, Ashby. had long attracted Greek 
FIG. 36.—MASONRY CARRYING VIA APPIA. traders and thus become 
thoroughly Hellenized. 
Campania’s splendid capital, the Etrusco-Greek Capua, urbs amplissi- 
ma atque ornatissima, had from an early date been connected with 
Rome by the Via Latina. A securer communication more to the west 
was established in 312 3.c. by the opening of the Via Appia, proudly 
called regina viarum, and constructed under the censorship of the 
famous Appius Claudius Cecus in 312 s.c. It was primarily a 
military road, but it was also intended to bring Rome into direct 
communication with Campania and thence with the Adriatic coast 
and the East. It thus became the main thoroughfare by which 
commerce and civilization penetrated to the Urbs. The imposing 
masonry that carried the Via Appia over irregular stretches of 
country can still be admired in its primitive grandeur at various 
points, as in the dip below Albano (Fig. 36). We may note that 
investigations at the fifth mile of the Via Appia have tended to reveal 
traces of tombs older than the way itself, belonging possibly to the 
38 


POURTH TO SECOND CENTURY B.C. 


old pre-Appian track that led to the Alban hills. The tombs of 
the Appian Way, so many of which are still extant, are among the 
most famous of antiquity. One of the earliest, immediately outside 
the Porta Capena, is the still extant Sepulchre of the Scipios, whose 
famous sarcophagus will be described in connection with the third 
century. 

It is with the opening of the Via Appia that certain authorities 
connected till recently the coinage that represents the reform of 
the Capuan mint under Roman influence. One of the types has 
on the obverse a head of Roma wearing the Phrygian helmet, 
and on the reverse an archaic wheel of six spokes “ingeniously 
explained as a symbol of the internal communication which was 
established be- 
tween Rome and 
Capua by the com- 
pletion of the Ap- 
pian Way. It thus 
forms a_ sort of 
parallel tothe prow 
on the Roman es 
grave which sym- 
bolized the newly 
acquired command 
of the sea’’ (Hill). 
Other fine designs 
occur on the quad- FIG. 37.—S SIGNATUM. 
rilateral bronze (British Museum.) 
bricks (so-called zs 
signatum) displaying the Roman eagle with outspread wings, holding 
the thunderbolt of Jupiter; on another we see an ox (Fig. 37) to 
commemorate the victory of Sentinum in 295 z.c. which finally broke 
the Samnite power; on yet a third, an elephant appears in allusion 
to the victories over Pyrrhus of the year 275 s.c. These fine pieces 
show the influence of Greece in the fresh observation of nature. 
Finally, we must notice the beautiful head of Roma wearing the 
leather Phrygian helmet on a didrachm of the year 312. On the 
reverse is a figure of Victory bearing the palm, from which a crown 
hangs by a long ribbon.! It has recently been shown that these 
coins were struck in Rome rather than in Capua; a theory which 
confirms what we shall have to say later on of the excellency of 
bronze work in the capital from the end of the fourth century 
onward. 


_1But see the recent important paper by H. Mattingly quoted in the Bibliography. 
39 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


The century closes with the erection in 302 8.c., towards the end 
of the second Samnite war, of the temple to Salus, near the Porta 
Salutaris on the Quirinal. Of this as of other temples of the period 
practically nothing is left. But outside Rome—at Ostia—we have 
traces of an important building of the fourth century in the castrum 
(ab. 350 3.c.), remains of whose enceinte with its four gates have 
recently been recovered under the Augustan Forum. It is the earliest 
instance of a permanent fortress near Rome, and was erected for the 
protection of the city from danger at the river mouth. It illustrates, 
moreover, a further application of the Italic quadrilateral principle of 
construction to architecture. 

§ 3. The third century to the Fall of Tarentum—Temples of 
Esculapius and of Venus.—Now, as before, oracles were active in 
establishing fresh links with Greece. For example, the temple of 
the Greek god A‘sculapius on the island of the Tiber (Fig. 34) 
belongs to the early part of the century. In 293 B.c., in con- 
sequence of an outbreak of the plague, the Sibylline books had 
ordered the sacred snake of A‘sculapius to be fetched from the 
god’s temple at Epidaurus. The snake came willingly, it is said, 
and swam to shore on the very island of the Tiber which, according 
to the legend, had been formed of the heaped-up corn thrown into 
the river from the field of the Tarquins. Here then, on the site 
which the snake had marked for his own, precisely where now 
stands the church of S. Bartolomeo, arose the temple which was 
dedicated on the Ist January, 291 3.c. In virtue of its direct 
connection with Epidaurus, the temple was significant of the Greek 
influences that were spreading towards Italy at this time. To 
commemorate the voyage of the sacred snake, the island itself was 
artificially banked up to imitate a ship travelling up stream. A 
travertine wall, shaped like a poop, was carved on the side facing 
the left bank with an effigy of A’sculapius—now much mutilated 
—holding staff and caduceus. Further up is the head of an ox; 
the scanty remains are still visible in the garden of the Franciscan 
Friars Minor who serve the modern hospital of S. Bartolomeo. Of 
the temple itself there are even fewer traces, though its holiest spot, 
the healing well of the god, may still be made out on the steps below 
the modern altar. 

It was in the same year 293 that therewas first established in Rome, 
in a temple near the Circus Maximus, a cult of Venus (Livy, x. 31, 
9), the goddess who as Aneadum genitrix, at once protectress of the 
Trojans and ancestress of the Romans, added one more link to the 
invisible chain that bound Rome to Hellenic culture. 

The victorious close of the Samnite wars left Rome in undisputed 


FOURTH: TO SECOND CENTURY B.C. 


possession of the coveted Campanian territory. It only remained to 
destroy Greek prestige in Southern Italy; this was accomplished 
in 275 z.c. by the fall of the powerful city of Tarentum and the 
departure of King Pyrrhus. The will of the Sibyl was being ful- 
filled, and there is no surer proof of the position achieved by Rome 
in the Mediterranean world than the embassy which the brilliant 
and artistic Ptolemy Philadelphus sent to open relations with her 
in 273 s.c. Apart from its political significance, the embassy has 
been well described as ‘‘ opening the door to Hellenistic institutions 
and manners, —the result of Rome’s mastership of Italy. It 
meant the definite triumph of the city state as the basis of civilization; 
and it also gave a first opportunity for the true expansion of Western 
European art. Had the city now enjoyed a long period of peace, 
art might have developed more quickly than it actually did. But 
the genius of Rome had still to mature in a series of struggles, the 
greatest of which, the conflict with Carthage, dominates the third 
century as the Samnite wars the fourth. 


§ 4. The Third Century (contd.) and the Carthaginian Wars— 
Temples of the Forum Holitorium—Temples of the Magna Mater, 
and at Gabii—Censorship and Buildings of Caius Flaminius—The 
Via Flaminia—Sepulchre of the Scipios——The new era of wars 
opened in 265 3.c. with the first phase of the long conflict with 
Carthage, and a number of Roman temples were built in fulfilment 
of vows made in battle or in obedience to the injunction of the 
Sibyl in the hour of danger. The three temples inside the Forum 
Holitorium, or ancient vegetable market, form a group repre- 
sentative of the period. The southernmost and oldest of the three, 
which is of the Doric order, has been recently identified as the 
temple of Spes (Hope), built in 258 s.c. during the first Punic 
war, in accordance with the vow of Atilius Calatinus. The second 
and northernmost, near the Theatre of Marcellus, of the Ionic 
order, generally identified with the temple of Janus, was vowed by 
C. Duilius, the hero of Myle, in 260 s.c.; and the central temple, 
likewise Ionic, is now thought to be that of Juno the Saviour (Sospita), 
vowed by C. Cornelius Cethegus in 197 3.c. during the Insubrian 
war, and dedicated in 194 3.c.!_ Considerable remains of all three 

1 Authorities seem to be agreed as to the central temple being that of Juno Sospita, 
the ancient goddess of Lanuvium, but there is still uncertainty as to the temples on 
either side. Lugli (Zona Archeologica di Roma, p. 236 ff.), the_most recent writer on 
the subject, inclines to see in these the temples of Janus and of Dis Pater, but without 
precising which was which. A temple of Dis Pater—probably identical, according to 


Lugli, with the temple of Summanus mentioned by Ovid (Fasti, vi., 275) was erected 
in 278 B.c. at the time of the war against Pyrrhus. 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


temples exist in or about the church of S. Nicola in Carcere, but as 
they are of travertine, a material little used till the period of Augustus, 
what we now see probably belongs to a first-century restoration. 
In the case of the temple of Spes, however, it is interesting to note 
that its severe archaic forms were carefully imitated by the restoring 
architects. The profile of its Doric columns is of the utmost 
7 simplicity and severity. The stone, 
| however, was only the carcase, and 
more detailed mouldings were filled 
in afterwards with the help of stucco, 
a method invariably followed in tem- 
ples not built of marble. In fact all 
three temples were undoubtedly coated 
with stucco: its creamy tone, its 
ai smooth texture, its luminous quality 
ATRIDEVMETNAVISATWIAG imparted effects of unparalleled 


E | SALVIAEVOTOSVSCEPTO | 
dori 


CHE | beauty. It seems improbable, how- 
ever, that the stucco should have 
been left uniformly white; not only 
would the influence of the coloured 
fictile decorations of so many Latin 
“| temples tell against this, but in Greece 
(B.S.R.) itself temples built of poros stone were 
FIG. 38.—RELIEF or cLaupiaN pate. brilliantly coloured as well as stuccoed; 
(Museo Capitolino.) even the pure marble of the Parthenon 
was enlivened by touches of colour. 
Another temple to be considered is connected with one of the 
most sensational events of the second Punic war. In 205 z.c., at 
the most critical period of the Carthaginian conflict, the Sibylline 
books counselled the Romans to fetch from Pessinus in Asia Minor 
the black conical stone of Cybele, the great mother of the gods, the 
Magna Mater Idea. ‘The sacred object was lodged at first in a 
temporary shrine, then in a temple which has been identified with 
the picturesque ruins within the ilex grove on the western spur of 
the Palatine. The temple was twice destroyed by fire and entirely 
rebuilt by Augustus in a.p. I, in so thoroughgoing a manner that 
in his account of his Res Gestz the Emperor actually says, eadem 
Matris Magne ...feci, an expression difficult to justify, seeing 
that the materials used in this restoration—peperino coated with 
stucco—were apparently those of the original structure. It is 
evident that Augustus, with his love of the archaic both in religion 
and art, wished the temple to retain its earlier form. Paullus 
fEmilius, the consul of 50 3.c., did the same when he rebuilt the. 
basilica named after his ancestor. 


42 


PA: SUN 


Baudet) OLCOND CENTURY “B.C. 


The incident of the Vestal Claudia Quinta, who vindicated her 
virtue by bringing to shore the vessel that bore the sacred stone, 
was presumably commemorated in some great votive picture. 
We may have an echo of this in a relief of the Capitol Museum 
dedicated by one Claudia Syntyche in honour of her sainted name- 
sake (Fig. 38). The relief is of Claudian date, when there was a 
notable revival of the cult of the great Mother, as there was again 
under Antoninus Pius; and as late as the reign of Julian we hear 
of bronze reliefs that represented the whole story. 

The installation on the Palatine of the cult of the Magna Mater 
had a political significance which has not escaped historians. “ Just 
as Juno of Veii,’ writes J. L. Myres for instance, “‘had set her seal 
upon the conquest of her city by accepting the invitation of Camillus, 
so with the Great Lady of Asia, the Mother of all the Gods, dwelling 
visibly in Rome, the ultimate victory of the Romans over all the 
world who worshipped her would seem to be foreordained.” 

It is possibly to 200 b.c. or a little earlier that we should date the 
beautiful temple of Gabii near Rome, the well-preserved cella of 
which is still standing (Fig. 39). The back wall projects on either 
side to meet the edge of the podium, while along the front and 
sides ran a row of slender columns placed wide apart and supporting 
a wooden architrave with terra-cotta facings. This temple, which 
is built of the local tufa (lapis gabinus), is interestinz a3 showing 
the persistence of the older 
Ttalo-Etruscan manner at a 
time when Hellenistic in- 
fluences were dominating 
the art and architecture of 
the capital. The semicir- 
cular flight of steps below 
the S.E. or principal end 
of the precinct apparently 
represents the upper tiers 
of theatre seats. Thus Gabii 
offers a first combination 
of theatre and temple such [Pio Deb rucce. 
as Pompey developed when FIG. 39.—TEMPLE OF GABII. 
he decided that his own 
theatre should form the approach to a temple to Venus. The 
manner in which the theatre is made into the monumental approach 
to the temple should possibly be traced back to the influence of the 
famous architect Hippodamus of Miletus, whose theories as to the 
relation of buildings one to another so powerfully influenced ancient 
town-planning. Hippodamus oe designed the harbour city of 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


Pirzeus on his own system in the Periclean period. The Athenian 
colony of Thurii in Magna Grecia was likewise held to be his 
creation. From Magna Grecia these Hippodamic influences 
would travel up to Latium, and coalesce with the principles of 
ancient Italic castrometria. Gabii on the other hand, offers one of 
the earliest examples of a rectangular temple precinct—a Roman or 
Italic feature which is in sharp contrast to the irregular precincts 
of Greek temples. 

The censorship of C. Flaminius, who afterwards perished as Consul 
in 217 z.c. in the heroic disaster of Trasimene, is—like that of Appius 
Claudius nearly a century earlier-—memorable for great public works. 
On the South side of the Campus. Martius he built, in 221 z.c., 
the Circus Flaminius. Its memory survives in the Via delle Botteghe 
Oscure, so called from the shops which, during the Middle Ages, were 
lodged in the dark arcades of the circus till in the sixteenth century 
the palatial residences of the Mattei and the Caetani destroyed or 
perhaps only concealed the last traces of the ancient building.! In 
point of fact, one or two pillars of the lower arcade were still visible 
till a few years ago; and from drawings by artists of the Renaissance, 
when a great part of the circus was still standing, we learn that it 
was in three tiers of superposed arcades. These apparently exhibited 
even at this early date the same decoration by means of engaged 
columns and entablatures which became so characteristic of Roman 
public buildings. As opposed to the arena for gladiatorial shows, 
which, like the shows themselves, is of Campanian origin (Vol. II., p. 
51), the circus, primarily designed for chariot and horse races, is an 
essentially Roman building and is little known outside the capital. 
The circus of Flaminius, moreover, is of importance as having 
apparently been built of stone from the first, though it was not till 
the days of Czsar that the older and greater Circus Maximus (of 
which only the carceres had been permanent since 329 B.c.) was 
transformed into a solid structure of stone. The Via Flaminia also, 
which opened communications with the North as the Via Appia 
had done with the South, was begun in 220 during the censorship 
of Flaminius. It left Rome from a gate in the old Servian wall, now 
generally identified as the Porta Fontinalis. Like the Appian, it 
was a coveted place of burial. Not far from the gate was the 
beautiful first-century tomb of Bibulus (p. 84), still to be seen in 
the Piazza Venezia to the left of the Monument of Victor Emmanuel. 
The first stretch from this point was in a straight line that coincided 
exactly with that of the modern Corso; the two circular churches 


1 Tt seems, however, that what little remains, belongs to later restorations. Ashby, 
s.o0. “Circus Flaminius”’ in Top. Dict. 


mowietie tO SECOND CENTURY -BiG: 


where the Corso now enters the Piazza del Popolo actually cover 
the site of two ancient Flaminian tombs. The various bridges 
over which the road is carried to Ariminum are of great beauty; 
but what now exists, 
like the great bridge of 
Narni, is of later date, 
and even the Milvian 
bridge (Fig. 40) belongs 
to a second-century res- 
toration. 

An allusion at least 
must be made to the 
walls of cities near Rome: 
those of Falerii Novi, 
for instance, with their 
two beautiful gates, the : 
Porta del Bove and the [Photo, Delbrueck. 
Porta di Giove (Fig. 41), FIG. 40.—PONS MULVIUS (PONTE MILVIO). 
so called from the figures 
on their key-stones. The new Falerii had been built by the Romans 
for the inhabitants of Falerii Veteres (Civita Castellana) when this 
city, one of the last strongholds of the Etruscan league, had been 
destroyed in 241 3.c. The enclosure is almost complete, and 
here, but a few miles from modern Rome, we may recapture an 
image of a Roman town 
of the third century of the 
Republic. 

The tomb of the Scipios, 
referred to above, is datable 
to the first half of the third 
century and strikingly illus- 
trates the tendencies of the 
period. The modest arch- 
way of the entrance, familiar 
from Piranesi’s print, is of 
peperino. Above it is an 

[Photo, Ashby. entablature supported on 

FIG. 41.—GATE OF FALERII NOVI. Attic pilasters, once coated 

with stucco. There was 

a second storey above ground which has now totally disappeared. 
The best preserved of the sarcophagi (for the Gens Cornelia was 
among the families who claimed the right of inhumation as an 
ancestral privilege, after incineration had become general), long 


45 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


since removed to the Vatican Museum (Fig. 42), bears the epitaph 
of Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus, the Consul of 298 z.c., the 
ancestor of those famous Scipios who besides being great statesmen 
and soldiers were also distinguished philhellenes. The sarcophagus 
is in the shape of a huge rectangular altar adorned with a Doric 
frieze of triglyphs and metopes filled with rosettes, while elegant 
Ionic volutes crown the lid. The material, a grey peperino, was 
probably stuccoed and 
painted. The Hellenic 
affinities are obvious. The 
exact architectural coun- 
‘terpart of the Scipionic 
sarcophagus may be seen 
in an altar in the Museum 
of Syracuse, and the same 
forms appear at a later 
date in the altar in front 
of the temple of Zeus 
Meilichios at Pompei. 
Of similar shape and 
style is the altar to the 
FIG. 42.——SARCOPHAGUS OF SCIPIO BARBATUS. unknown god on the 
ee Palatine dedicated “to 
god or goddess, which- 
ever it be,” restored according to the inscription by the Pretor 
Sextus Calvinus, probably about 100 s.c., after an original of 
unknown date. With this Hellenistic form of altar it is interesting 
to compare the perfectly plain Italic bases of peperino with the 
famous inscription HERCOLEI SACROM, dedicated to Hercules 
by Marcus Minutius in 218 z.c. It is now in the Museo Musso- 
lini, together with other examples of early Italic art. Towards 
the close of the century the fall of Capua in 212 B.c., followed in 
209 s.c. by the second capture of Tarentum, which had revolted 
from Rome to Hannibal, gave to Rome undisputed mastery 
over the two richest art-centres of the Peninsula. It was from 
Tarentum, we may suppose, that Marcellus brought the statue 
of Victory which, under Augustus, was placed in the Senate 
House (p. 128). 

There are few phases of Roman history more attractive to the 
student of art than the third century. The young city state in 
growing consciousness of its power, and dimly divining its great 
future, was endeavouring at the same time to create an art of its 
own with the help of the best models. The words of the old poet 

46 


Poort SECOND CENTURY B.C. 


quoted by Cicero are as true of the artistic as of the literary effort 
of the period: “Punico bello secundo Musa pinnato gradu intulit 
se bellicosam in Romuli gentem feram.” 


$5. The Second Century and the Growing Influence of Greece— 
Macedonian and Greek Wars—Pergamon—Roman Dominion in 
Esypt—Roman Influence in Greece—Greek Architects in Rome— 
Philhellene Aristocracy and Patrons of Art—Temples, Basilicas and 
other civic Buildings—Aqueducts, Bridges, Porticoes and Colonnades. 
—The second century was rich in political events that strongly 
influenced the trend of art. The conflict with Antiochus the Great 
at the beginning of the century eventually led to the reduction of a 
part of Asia Minor in 189 3.c. The treaty with Egypt of the year 
173 was a first step towards establishing Roman dominion in both 
Syria and Egypt. The year 146, which saw the Macedonian Greek 
wars end with the annexation of Greece as a Roman province, also 
saw the destruction of Carthage. Finally the year 133 was 
memorable for the legacy to the Roman people of the kingdom of 
Pergamon, for a century the most fertile of the Hellenistic art 
centres. Thus in the second century Rome, who had so far known 
Hellenic influence mainly through Magna Grecia, came into direct 
contact with the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Asia and Greece. 
To a young race with ideals still immature, but realizing to the full 
the value of art as an asset in a nation’s culture, this effect was 
overwhelming: for a time, it is true, the inevitable result was to 
check growth from within and to substitute for it that imitation of the 
artistic forms of older countries which threatened on occasion to be 
the bane of Roman art. This philhellenism of the Romans verged 
at times on sentimentality, but it was part of a deliberate policy by 
which they strove to rid themselves of the stigma attaching to them 
as barbari or outsiders. They believed that by entering the charmed 
circle of Hellenic culture their prestige would be a hundredfold 
enhanced, and we have already indicated that their adoption of the 
Sibyllo-Apolline books was the first step in this direction. Even 
at the height of their enthusiasm for Greece they had sufficient good. 
sense or good taste not to seek to identify themselves with the 
Greeks, but clung to the faith in their destiny as descendants of 
Troy. So when Q. Flamininus is crowned as liberator at the Isth- 
mian games of 196 z.c., he does not boast that he is descended from 
Achilles or Agamemnon, but calls himself for the occasion A:neades 
Titus. 

Interacting Greek and Roman influences early made themselves 
felt in Greece itself. In 174 es i Syrian King Antiochus IV, a 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


fervent patron of Athens, offered to complete on its Peisistratean 
foundations the Olympieion or Temple of Zeus, summoning for the 
purpose the Roman architect Cossutius. In 167 B.c. a monument was 
put up at Delphi by A‘milius Paullus to commemorate the victory 
of Pydna. This was a tall rectangular pillar, 11 m. high, adorned 
with a little frieze representing battle episodes (Fig. 43). It carried 
the equestrian statue of the victorious Roman, statues of whom also 
crowned the columns which the 
conquered Perseus had prepared 
as pedestals for his own effigies. 
In Rome there had been a fresh 
influx: of Greek cults at the be- 
ginning of the century, while, 
under the stimulus of war, many 
ancient Roman cults were restored. 
In 191 3.c. Acilius Glabrio, at the 
battle of Thermopylz, where he 
defeated Antiochus the Great, 
vowed a temple to Pietas, which 
was erected on the east side of the 
site of the later Theatre of Marcel- 
lus. The temple was dedicated by 
his son in 184 3.c., when a gilded 
statue (the first it is said, of its kind 
in Rome) was set up to the founder. 
The Temple of Venus as Erycina 
near the Porta Collina, vowed in 
the Ligurian war of 184 8.c. (Ovid, 
Fasti, iv., 871), marked another effort to connect Rome with Trojan 
fEneas (Virg., 4in., v. 759). Later in the century Q. Czcilius Metel- 
lus, in honour of his triumph of the year 146 z.c. at the close of the 
Macedonian war, commissioned the Greek architect Hermodorus 
of Salamis to build in honour of Juno Regina and of Jupiter Stator 
the two first marble temples of the Urbs. They stood within an 
enclosure—the Porticus Metelli—which was rebuilt under Augustus 
and renamed after the Emperor’s sister the Porticus Octaviez. The 
temple of Jupiter was peripteral, with six columns at the front and 
back and eleven at the sides; the few remains visible, which include 
three fluted columns with Corinthian capitals from the temple of 
Juno in Via S. Angelo in Pescheria, belong probably to the restoration 
under Augustus, or possibly to that of Septimius Severus. It 
should be noted that within the great porticoes that surrounded 
the temples, Metellus arranged ? Hie gallery of art which included 


[Arit Grafiche. 


FIG. 43.—MONUMENT OF ZMILIUS PAULUS. 
(Restoration in Terme Mus.) 


POUR LO SECOND’ CENTURY B.C. 


the celebrated group of Alexander and his companions. Metellus 
belonged to one of the most illustrious families of Rome and 
one closely connected by adoption with the Scipios, who, again 
by adoption, were connected with A-milius Paullus; so that many 
of the buildings of this period were in reality due to the influence 
of a group of families, whose central inspiration was an enthusiastic 
love of Greek art and of Greek literature. It is noteworthy that about 
the same time that Metellus was 
dedicating his two marble temples, 
the Greeks were putting up his 
portrait statue at Megara (/.G.S., 
i. 3490). Excavation or careful 
search in museums may yet re- 
veal—as Studniczka has recently 
shown—the existence of portraits 
of Romans set up in Greece (see 
Bibl., Chap. IV). 

In 138 3.c. we once more hear 
of Hermodorus building for D.. 
Junius Brutus Callaicus, on the 
occasion of this general’s triumph 
de Callaicis et Lusitanis, a Temple —#!S- 44: ~0UND TEMPLE BY THE TIBER. 
of Mars near the Circus Flami- 
nius. Moreover, two famous Greek statues—a seated Mars and a 
Venus, both by Scopas—were placed within the temple, but the 
Latin element reasserted itself in the vestibule of the temple, where 
might be read the dedicatory inscription in Saturnian metre by the 
poet Accius. 

The round marble temple by the Tiber (Fig. 44) was long thought 
to belong to this period, chiefly on account of a supposed resemblance 
between its capitals and those of the Olympieion! at Athens built by 
Cossutius, a Roman architect, for Antiochus Epiphanes. Quite 
recent authorities, however, consider that the capitals belong to the 
period of Septimius Severus, and suggest that what we see is a recon- 
struction over an old core of tufa, now concealed by a casing of eight 
or ten marble steps. The building thus affords one of the two 
examples so far known in Rome of a Greek stylobate in place of the 
Roman podium; the other instance being the temple of Venus 
and Roma planned in the second century by the architect- 
emperor Hadrian, who at times reverted to Greek models. The 


1 The capital supposed to have served as model seems not to belong to the 
Olympieion but to the Stoa of Hadrian. Giitschow, Arch. Jahrb., xxxvi., 1921, 
p. 60 ff., and p. 66. 

VOL. I. 49 E 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


deity to whom the round temple was dedicated has not yet been 
discovered; a recent suggestion is Sol, who had a temple by the 
Circus Maximus (Tac., Ann. xv. 74). The point must remain 
uncertain through lack of satisfactory evidence. 

Religious ardour had a rival in this century in the civic spirit 
which found a first expression in the embellishment of the Forum, 
where, in imitation of the great cities of Asia Minor and of Magna 
Grecia, large basilicas were now erected for the transaction of 
business. This form of building was early known to the Greeks, 
as, for example, in the Stoa Basileios at Athens; one of the earliest 
basilicas in Italy, earlier possibly than any Roman example, is the one 
at Pompei, which is commonly dated to the end of the second century 
B.c. The general plan of a basilica may be described as a long 
rectangle divided into a broad nave and narrower side aisles, by two 
internal rows of columns. The exterior might be surrounded with 
one or more colonnades, affording further convenient spaces where 
people could meet and discuss affairs, a counterpart of the lobby 
or salle des fas perdus of our modern law-courts. The basilican plan, 
long thought to have originated in Greece, has lately been shown to 
be more probably Persian. The nave was as a rule raised higher 
than the aisles and had a clerestory; the ceilings were generally 
coffered. In Rome the Basilica Porcia was erected by Cato the 
elder in 184 3.c. after his return from Greece. On the other side 
of the Curia, to the North of the Forum, M. A:milius Lepidus and 
M. Fulvius Flaccus, the famous censors of the year 179, founded 
the Basilica Fulvia et A:milia, which was later known by the second 
name only, from the family who took the building under their sole 
charge. Ten years after the Basilica A-milia had been built on the 
North side of the Forum, Titus Sempronius Gracchus, the father 
of the famous Gracchi, purchased on the opposite side the house 
of the elder Scipio, with the adjoining property, and erected the 
Basilica Sempronia on the site afterwards covered by the Basilica 
Julia. Finally, mention may be made of the Basilica Opimia, N. of 
the temple of Concord,erected by Opimius,the enemy of C.Gracchus, 
in the year of the great tribune’s murder at the same time that 
Opimius restored the temple itself. These four basilicas must have 
impressed a new and monumental character on the centre of the 
Urbs. They represent a first step in the direction of regular town- 
planning—of the studied arrangement of monuments in relation to 
one another and their surroundings. Similar in character to the 
basilicas were porticoes such as the Porticus Minucia, erected by the 
Consul M. Minucius Rufus in 110 s.c. as a granary for the city, on 
a site near the Vegetable vee but not yet confidently identified, 

0 


POURTH TO SECOND CENTURY B.C. 


though we probably have its remains in certain pilasters walled into 
the later theatre of Marcellus, which belonged, it is thought, to a 
large portico with six naves separated by square pillars of travertine— 
a plan suitable to a market-place or similar building. Greek influence 
was still powerful; we have referred to Hermodorus as building the 
temples in the Porticus Metelli; he also appears as the architect of 
the new navalia or dockyards, remains of which still exist below the 
Palazzo Farnese. 

Among novel architectural features at this time must be reckoned 
the long colonnades built in imitation of the covered streets of the 
Greco-Orient to afford shelter alike from sun and rain. Colonnades 
stretched along the quays from the Emporium to the docks and 
from the temple of Spes in the Vegetable Market to the old temple 
of Apollo by the Porta Carmentalis. These colonnades received 
an extraordinary development under the Empire and survived for 
a long time in Papal Rome, so that in the Middle Ages it was possible 
for processions to pass under continuous cover from the Basilica 
of S. Peter to that of S. Paul outside the walls. 

In the second century likewise, monumental arches,—one of 
Rome’s greatest creations and one which has had a lasting influence 
on architecture and decoration—make their first appearance with the 
arches, surmounted by gilded statues, put up by Stertinius in the 
Circus Maximus and in the Forum Boarium (196 B.c.; Livy 
XXXIII, 27, 4), and the arch put by the great Scipio on the Clivus 
Capitolinus (Livy XX XVII, 3, 7). Later in the century, in 121 3.c., 
Fabius Allobrogicus set up in the Forum an arch, scanty remains of 
whose tufa foundation have been identified by Dr. E. Van Deman. 
It is noteworthy that this type of arch rarely served to span a road- 
way, or as a city or enclosure-gate, but was primarily a pedestal for 
statues and remained so to the end. Recently the origin of these 
pedestal arches has been traced back to Greece, to the twin columns 
used to support a basis broad enough for a group and which, it is 
supposed, were in time coupled by an arch. In Imperial days 
the arch was gradually covered with reliefs and statuary, and as 
such influenced the decoration of the porches of Medizeval Churches 
and finally became an art-form of paramount importance in the 
Italian Baroque (see Rushforth, Legacy of Rome, p. 415). 

The rapid development of the arch in the service of aqueducts and 
bridges is a notable feature of the time. In the middle of the 
second century Rome received her first permanent bridges of stone: 
the earliest, the Pons 4milius immediately north of the old wooden 
Pons Sublicius, though planned in 193 .c. by A‘milius Lepidus, was 
not completed till 142 B.c. It ae repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


down to the sixteenth century. On the right of its remaining arch 
(the Ponte Rotto) may be seen traces of one of the original piers. 
In 109 the Pons Milvius was built to carry the Via Flaminia across 
the Tiber, though an older bridge, wholly of wood or else of wooden 
planks laid on stone piers, must have been in existence as early as 
the road itself. One of the ancient arches of the stone structure, 
the first from the South, is still standing (above, Fig. 40). Similar 
constructions may be seen in the remaining arch of the Aqua Marcia 
to the left of the Via Latina, near the Porta Furba, belonging to 

the aqueduct erected 
an | in) 44 peo 
~ | Marcius Rex (Fig. 

45). A distinguished 

American historian 

points out, that the 

successful termination 

of the six miles of 

arches of this aque- 

duct probably gave 

the Romans courage 

to build their first 

, stone bridge. Bridges 

[Photo, Delbrueck. and aqueducts are 

FIG. 45.—ARCH OF AQUA MARCIA. works of engineering; 

but their significance 

in the history of art is immense, since they gave the first impetus to 

arched construction, and where the origin of the vaults, domes and 

arcadings which are among Rome’s most distinctive contributions 
to architecture. 

Almost every great political movement had its repercussion in 
Roman art. For instance, the Temple of Concord was restored 
with great splendour in 121 3.c. in token of reconciliation, after the 
fal! of C. Graechus and the execution of three hundred of his 
followers. The influence on art of the triumphal pageants (p. 73) 
has generally been limited to the foreign pictures and statues which 
the victorious generals brought in their train and which were 
exhibited in the processions. But the triumph was also frequently 
marked by the building or rebuilding of public’ edifices, as, for 
instance, in 117 8.c., when L. Cacilius Metellus Dalmaticus devoted 
a great part of the booty from his Dalmatian campaign to the 
restoration of the temple of the Castores, on which occasion the 
lofty podium was remade with a core of opus cxmenticium or 
concrete. 

52 


FOURTH TO SECOND CENTURY B.C. 


The second century, be it said in conclusion, is for ever memorable 
for the introduction of this building material. At first sight this 
innovation might seem to have a mere constructional value; as a 
fact it became in time a factor of supreme importance in the domain 
of art. To it we owe the magnificent systems of vaulting of the 
Empire which are still to-day among the wonders of the world. 
The exact date of the discovery is not fixed; the earliest extant 
monuments where the use of concrete can be certified are the 
podium of the Temple of Concord, which was rebuilt in 120 B.c., 
and that of the temple of the Castores, which was restored, as we 
have just seen, in 117 B.c., but, as Dr. E. Van Deman justly remarks, 
these examples of opus cementicium are already so perfect that the 
material must have been in use for some time previously. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


A. History and Religion. 


Frank, Tenney, Roman Imperialism, 1914;—An Economic History of Rome to the 
End of the Republic, 1920;—A History of Rome, 1923. Holleaux, M., “Rome, la 
Gréce et les monarchies hellénistiques au III siécle av. J.-C.” (B.E.F., vol. 124, 
1921). Skutsch: “Ennius” in P.W., v. 2590 (Ennius and the Philhellenes at 
Rome). Wissowa, G., Religion und Kultus der Romer, 1912 (2nd ed.) (p. 50: Apollo 
of Cume; pp. 74 f., the Sibylline books and the influence of Apollo under Augustus). 
Zimmern, A. E., The Greek Commonwealth ;—Politics and Economics in Fifth-Century 
Athens, 1911, p. 203 n. 3 (the embassy to Athens to learn laws; with reference to 
Meyer, Geschichte des Altertums, III, § 370). 


B. Roads. 


Ashby, T., “Classical Topography of the Roman Campagna” (P.B.S.R., vol. i., 
1902, p. 125; iii., 1906, p. 1; iv., 1907, p. 1 (the Via Latina, I); v. 1910, p. 213 (the 
Via Latina, II). Pinza, G., “Ricerche ai Monumenti ritrovati al v miglia dell’ Appia” 
(Jahreshefte, ix-x; 1906-7, p. 191). Tomassetti, La Campagna Romana, 4 vols. 


C. Coins. 


Grueber, H. A., Coins of the Roman Republic in the British Museum., 1910, Introd., 
vol.i. Haeberlin, E. J., “Der Roma Typus auf den Miinzen der romischen Republik” 
(Corolla Numismatica, 1906, p. 135);—A:s Grave; das Schwergeld Roms und Mittel- 
italiens, 1910. Hill, G. F., Historical Roman Coins, 1909. Macdonald, G., Coin 
Types, their Origin and Development, 1905 (p. 93, on the Commemorative Influence). 
Mattingly, H., “The Romano-Campanian Coinage and the Pyrrhic War,” in N.C., 
iv., 1925 (argues that “the so-called ‘Romano-Campanian’ coins... are nothing 
more nor less than the coinage of Rome in the war with Pyrrhus, issued during the 
alliance with Carthage, and to a large extent at least by her aid,”). Sydenham, A. E., 
4s Grave, 1926 (a work of which I have not been able to avail myself). Willers, 
H., Geschichte der rémischen Kupferpragung, 1909. Wolters, P., ‘Das alteste Bild 
der Roma,” 1924 in Festschrift fiir Heinrich Wolfflin, p. 9 (the didrachm of 312 B.c. 


commemorating the foundation of the Via Appia). 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


D. Architecture. 


Altmann,W., Die Italischen Rundbauten,|906 (the round temple by the Tiber, etc.). 
Besnier, M., “L’Ile Tibérine dans |’Antiquité (B.E.F., vol. 87, 1902) (the temple of 
‘Esculapius; the bridges). von Bissing, F. W., “Der persische Palast und die 
Basilika” (Studien zur Kunst des Ostens J. Sirzygowski gewidmet, p. 49; for the 
provenance of the basilica-type). Colini, A. N., Capitolium, III., 1927, p. 27 ff. 
(Tomb of Scipios). Delbriick, R., Das Capitolium von Signia;—der Apollotempel 
auf dem Marsfelde in Rom, 1903;—Die drei Tempel am Forum Holitorium, 1903;— 
Hellenistische Bauten in Latium, 1907. Esdaile,K.E.,R.M., 1908, pp. 368-374 (Temple 
of Cybele). Frank, Tenney, Roman Buildings of the Republic (Papers and Monographs 
of the Amer. Acad., 1924; Chap. VIII for bridges and arches). Helbig, W., 
Italiker in der Poebene, 1879 (p. 51 for the Round Temple). Huelsen, Ch., J] Foro 
Boario e le sue adiacenze, 1896. Isabelle, E., Les Edifices Circulaires, 1855. 
Nicorescu, P., “Tomba dei Scipioni” (Ephemeris Dacoromena, I., 1923). Nilsson, 
M., B.C.H., 1925, p. 155 f. (arches). Reinach, A., “Le Monument de Paul-Emile a 
Delphes,”’ B.C.H., xxxiv., p. 433 ff. Rebert, Homer F., and Marceau, Henri, “The ~ 
Temple of Concord in the Roman Forum,” (Am. Memoirs, v., 1925, p. 53 ff.). 
Sambon, L., “Donaria of Medical Interest” (British Medical Journal, 1895, ii., 
pp. 146 & 516; ex-votos from the temple of A‘sculapius). Van Deman, E. Boise, 
“Methods of determining the Date of Roman Concrete Monuments” (A.J.A., 
xvi., 1912, nos. 2 & 3). Visconti, E. Q., Monumenti Gabinii della Villa Pinciana, 
Chap. III, p. 9. 


54 


FIG. 46.—A ROMAN SEPULCHRAL-URN IN BRITISH MUSEUM. 


CHAPTER IV 


PAINTING AND SCULPTURE IN ROME FROM THE 
POUR Iie 10 THE SECOND CENTURIES’ B.C, 


I. PAINTING 


The Roman painting of this period has either been altogether 
neglected or else a few passages are quoted from the authors to 
illustrate its use in Roman triumphs or in the decoration of buildings. 
Yet an immense body of pictorial art was put together at this time 
which afterwards influenced the formation of that Imperial sculpture 
in relief so much studied in recent years. It is as yet difficult to 
distinguish very clearly between Etruscan and the different groups 
of Italic painting, but an attempt can at least be made to consider 
the few extant examples and the literary sources in chronological 
order. 

§ 1. The Esquiline fresco.—The series opens with a fragment of 
wall painting in the Museo Mussolini. It comes from a tomb on 
the Esquiline and is datable to the end of the fourth or beginning 
of the third century (Fig. 47). A first glance at the arrange- 
ment of the subjects in superposed tiers betrays Hellenic influence, 
though details are Italic. On the left of the topmost tier we see a 
crenellated city wall; an officer of high rank, wearing a high-plumed 
helmet and a thick military cloak thrown over his left shoulder is 
inscribed M. Fannius; he has apparently come out of the gate to 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


parley with another officer inscribed Q. Fabius, who grasping his 
spear in his right hand advances from the right. The accoutrement 
of the former is as distinctly Sam- 
nite as the name of the second is 
Roman. Below, the same two 
officers are again seen parleying, 
though Fabius has removed his — 
helmet, and behind him a young 
man moves to the left blowing a 
trumpet as for a proclamation; on 
the right, behind Fabius, is a group 
of four figures. Of the lower 
frieze only a small piece is left, 
with remains of a battle scene: an 
officer with plumed helmet is ad- 
vancing under cover of his shield, 
immediately followed by two sol- 
diers. The draughtsmanship, the 
modelling, and the arrangement of 
the groups recall the Hellenizing 
schools of Campania, as we know 
them from certain painted terra- 
_ cottas in the Museum of Capua— 
FIG. 47. GENERALS FARLEYING. WALL one WIL) a) NOTeom ia] suey ae 
(Mus Mussa beauty; while the rich helmet of 
(B.S.R. Catalogue.) Fannius, with a long feather stuck 
at each side, is that of the war- 
riors on a wall painting at Naples (from a tomb at Pestum and pre- 
sumably Samnite) (Fig. 48). There can be little doubt, therefore, 
that the fresco represents episodes of the Samnite war, though it 
would be rash to accept it as a reduced copy of certain wall paint- 
ings in the temple of Salus mentioned in literature as having been 
put up at the close of the 
so-cailed second war. Whether 
they be copies or originals, the 
Esquiline frescoes, in spite of 
their deplorable condition, re- 
tain many qualities. The col- 
loquy between the chiefs is 
drawn with much spirit, and the 
group of soldiers behind 
Fabius is so skilfully massed yo, 48.—WALL PAINTING FROM PASTUM. 
that, as later on Julio-Claudian (Naples.) 


56 


EARLY PAINTING AND SCULPTURE 


monuments, a few figures suffice to give the impression of a crowd. 
They are also the earliest surviving instance in Rome of a system of 
decoration by superposed friezes, which, though derived from Ionian 
models, became the main factor of Roman triumphal reliefs, and 
had its fullest efflorescence under the Empire. 

§ 2. The Paintings inthe Temple of Salus (303 3.c.).—These pictures 
from the temple of Salus are mentioned by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, 
a good critic, who praises them for the precision of the drawing and 
the harmony of the colours, which were brilliant without being 
gaudy. As Dionysius lived in Rome under Augustus, and the Salus 
frescoes were not destroyed till the fire under Claudius, he is almost 
certainly describing them at first hand, and not repeating older 
judgments like most of our authorities. Yet we have no clue to the 
subject of the pictures nor are we told whom they were painted for, 
or indeed by whom. It is true that later the pictures were commonly 
attributed to one Fabius Pictor—a personage otherwise unknown to 
history—who apparently, in spite of his high rank, condescended 
to exercise the humble craft of the painter. The attempt has 
repeatedly been made to show that the Essquiline fragment described 
above is from a copy of the Salus frescoes. It is easy to suggest 
that the name of the painter and the edifying story attached to it 
were evolved out of the inscription Fabius, which probably would 
appear over the head of the Roman general, in the temple as in the 
Esquiline picture. At the same time the name Fabius is too 
common, the story too suspect to serve as basis for determining 
the subject of the larger temple pictures; nor is there any instance 
of a permanent wall painting of a purely secular or military character 
in an ancient temple, especially at so early a date. We should expect 
rather to find military exploits disguised as mythology or legend. 

§ 3. Triumphal Pictures—The Scipios—AEmilius Paullus and the 
Philosopher-Painter Metrodorus——In 272 8.c. the Consul Lucius 
Papirius Cursor, the hero of the third Samnite war, had a 
picture of himself as triumphator painted for the temple of 
Consus on the Aventine; and in 264 z.c., after the capture 
of Volsini by Marcus Fulvius Flaccus, had a similar picture of 
himself put up in the neighbouring temple of Vortumnus. Such 
effigies had a very ancient origin, as we know from the famous 
opening of the eighth satire of Juvenal. From this we hear 
that when a family boasted of a triumphator, a picture of him in 
full panoply and mounted on his chariot was placed among the 
ancestral imagines. These were all probably wall paintings, but about 
the time of the Punic wars it became the custom to represent 
military exploits and public events on a fabula or portable panel 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


which could be carried in procession and temporarily exhibited in 
some conspicuous place. These pictures made excellent war and 
political propaganda, and afforded unparalleled opportunities for 
self-advertisement. Thus we are told that Lucius Hostilius Mancinus, 
who was the first to enter Carthage when the city finally fell in 146 8.c., 
had a picture of the event exhibited in the Forum, and to the great 
chagrin of Scipio A‘milianus, the conqueror of Carthage, stood by and 
explained all the details—the ramparts, the fortifications, and the 
disposition of the troops—with a geniality that won him the consul- 
ship at the next elections. The composition was doubtless similar 
to that of the Esquiline fresco. This class of picture was not only 
useful for canvassing. Quintilian mentions the ancient custom of 
bringing into court pictures of the crime painted on wood or canvas, 
that the jury might be stirred to pity or horror by the sight. He 
views the practice with disapproval, not so much as an illicit means’ 
of working upon the feeling of judge and jury, but because “the 
pleader who prefers a voiceless picture to plead for him in place of 
his own eloquence must be singularly incompetent.” Either the 
pictures were not works of much merit, or Quintilian had small faith 
in. the emotional power of art. 

The same year that Marcus Fulvius Flaccus was portrayed as 
triumphator in the temple of Vortumnus, M. Messala exhibited at 
the side of the Curia Hostilia a picture of his own victory over the 
Carthaginians and Hiero. Another picture, which T. Sempronius 
Gracchus put up in the temple of Liberty to commemorate the victory 
of Beneventum in 214 3.c. was an interesting departure from the 
more usual themes. Its subject was the public festivities offered by 
the Beneventines in honour of the event; and Livy’s vivid description 
of the banquet (xxxiv. 16) and of the joyous participation of the 
troops may well have been inspired by the picture itself. 

The brilliant group of the Scipios enriched the city with pictures 
painted on the occasion of their numerous victories. Thus, at the 
triumph of Scipio Africanus after Zama, pictures(ypa¢al xal oxjpara) 
of the principal episodes of the war followed upon “the towers . . . 
representing the captured cities” as we hear from Appian (8.66). 
After he had defeated Antiochus in 188 s.c., one hundred and thirty- 
five personifications of conquered cities (the number seems greatly 
exaggerated) followed in the triumph of Scipio Asiagenus, who, 
moreover, put up in the Capitol a picture of the battle, a thoughtless 
action which hurt his gallant brother Africanus, who had lost a 
son in the war. After his victory over King Perseus of Macedonia 
in 168 3.c., Aémilius Paullus visited Athens to find a competent 
tutor for his son and an equally bees painter to illustrate his. 


EARLY PAINTING AND SCULPTURE 


triumph: a quest in which he was fortunate, since the philosopher- 
poet Metrodorus, who conveniently followed both professions, was 
warmly recommended to him. The triumph of A-milius Paullus is 
one of the most celebrated in history. We are not told what it was 
exactly that Metrodorus painted, though we may assume that he was 
responsible for those allegorical figures (species simulacrorum) of 
conquered cities that followed the triumphator’s car. Similar 
personifications had already been seen at the triumph of Scipio 
Africanus; they were then in great favour, and we hear of an 
Ambracia capta that figured in the triumph of M. Fulvius Nobilior in 
187, and was afterwards set up on 
the doorposts at the entrance of his 
house. They were quite certainly 
inspired by Greek models; the 
“Arcadia” in the picture of the 
“Childhood of Telephus’” at 
Naples (Fig. 49) shows to what 
perfection the Greeks had brought 
those allegories of localities. The 
conception was thoroughly assimi- 
lated by the Romans in those 
pathetic versions of the captured 
provinces that figure on Imperial 
coins and reliefs. 

§ 4. The painter-poet Pacuvius 
and the Frescoes of the Temple 
of Hercules in the Cattle Market. 


3 FIG. 49.—‘‘ARCADIA”—WALL PAINTING 
—Pacuvius (born 220 z.c.), a poet FROM POMPEI, 
who was also a painter, is thor- (Naples. ) 


oughly representative of his time. 

He was a native of Brindisi, and was thus born half a Greek, besides 
being on his mother’s side a nephew of the poet Ennius, himself a 
Calabrian. Ennius, who was early noted for his ardent philhellen- 
ism, may have fired the young man’s imagination with the description 
of his visit to Greece in 189 b.c. in the train of Fulvius Nobilior. 
Pacuvius, thus early imbued with Greek ideals, was readily admitted 
in Rome into the cultured Scipionic circle and wrote a play (Pre- 
texta Paullus) in honour of their distinguished kinsman, A:milius 
-Paullus, who, remembering that Pacuvius was also a painter, 
commissioned him to decorate an xdes xmiliana named after him. 
This was a temple of Hercules in Foro Boario, but its precise site 
is unknown. Though various attempts have been made to connect 
it with the ancient round shrine of Hercules, also in the cattle 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


market, or with the round temple by the Tiber, the evidence is 
in both cases insufficient. | 

We are in the dark as to the subject of the paintings. Did they 
aim at representing real episodes of warfare, or were they of a religious 
character, or did they commemorate the victories of Paullus by means 
of mythological allegories? It would only be natural that the 
nephew of the poet who had written of Rome’s descent from Troy 
should paint a “Fall of Troy,” to suggest that the victories of 
AEmilius in Greece were the beginning of the long-delayed revanche 
which was to give back to Troy’s descendants the hegemony wrested 
from Troy in a legendary past. But this is the merest conjecture. 

§ 5. Maps with Designs of Localities. Demetrius of Alexandria.— 
After the conquest and final pacification of Sardinia in 174 B.c., the 
victorious general Sempronius Gracchus put up in the temple of 
Mater Matuta, a map of the conquered island, of which Livy copied 
the inscription, adding that upon it were represented the battles of 
the campaign, a method of enlivening a map not unknown to the 
cartographers of the Renascence. Geographical pictures soon 
became fashionable. Varro mentions a map of Italy put up in the 
Temple of Tellus which gave him and his friends occasion to 
discourse on the agricultural wealth of Italy, while waiting for the 
return of the temple sacristan on the Feast of the Sowing (de Re Rust., 
II). And at a later date the map of Europe that gave its name to the 
porticus Vipsania erected by Agrippa was very probably of a similar 
character. The map of the ancient world known as the Tabula 
Peutingeriana seems a late imitation of this type of pictorial cartog- 
raphy. The painting of localities for maps, and more often for 
triumphal pictures, was a profession in itself. We hear of one 
Demetrius, surnamed topographus, or “ painter of places,’ who lived 
in Rome in the middle of the second century. He also doubtless 
brought in Greek influences. From his father’s name Seleukos he 
appears to have been of Syro-Greek origin, but he had established 
himself at Alexandria, whence he fled probably at the time of the 
persecution of Ptolemy Physkon and took refuge in Rome. There he 
was followed by his illustrious fellow-citizen, Ptolemy VII, a fugitive 
like himself, whoasked for the painter's hospitality at atime when rents 
apparently ran as high in Rome as they do now. The story indicates 
that Demetrius was previously known to the king, and was therefore a 
man of some standing. Very possibly he brought with him a great 
knowledge of this topographical painting acquired in Syria and 
Egypt, and applied it to Roman themes. In time a corpus of tradi- 
tional types, including the forest, the ambush, the ford, the rampart, 
the camp, the river, the bridge ay the pontoon, the high mountain 


EARLY PAINTING AND SCULPTURE 


and the mountain pass, came into existence, which established the 
conventions of huge panoramic compositions such as those on the 


column of Trajan. The scenes 
represented no doubt repeated 
traditional types; by _ slightly 
varying the details and altering 
the inscriptions the same battle 
scenes, parleys between chiefs, 
groups of prisoners, landscapes 
and towns, did duty as repre- 
sentations of happenings in 
regions and countries as far 
apart as Sicily and Sardinia, or 
even as Spain and Greece. 

At the same time Demetrius 
was possibly something more 
than a simple _ cartographer; 
though we possess nothing di- 
rectly attributable to his influence 
he may well have had a large part 


FIG. 50.—THE CORSINI CHAIR. 
(Rome: Palazzo Corsini.) 


in the formation of that Roman school of landscape which appears 
for the first time in a highly developed state about a century later. 

§ 6. Religious Painting: Votive Pictures, Reliefs, and Gems.— 
In a sense all art in antiquity was religious, and not least so the 


FIG. 5I.—BONE CARVINGS. 
(Villa Giulia.) 


triumphal pictures set up in thanks- 
giving for victory. We hear little, 
however, at this time of either 
devotional or mythological pictures, 
though low reliefs akin to paintings 
provide us with specimens of ritual 
and sacrificial scenes. The super- 
posed reliefs of the Sedia Corsini 
(Fig. 50) are of this class, and inci- 
dentally illustrate the religious con- 
servatism of the Italians; it is diff- 
cult to date them earlier than the end 
of the second century B.c., yet they re- 
tain archaic traits and are reminiscent 
of the reliefs on a laminated bronze 
situla of Alpine type found near Bo- 
logna. In the present context we 
might also mention a class of bone- 
carvings of which there is a good 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


example in the Villa Giulia (Fig. 51); it is a box-casing, with repre- 
sentations of divinities standing side by side. On the other hand, 
votive pictures of every sort—from those put up in gratitude for elec- 
tion to the edileship, to those humbler records of miraculous recover- 
ies or escapes from peril—were as common in temples as is a similar 
class of pictures in popular Catholic shrines. The same kinds of 
subject are found upon the engraved gems which came into fashion 
at this time under Etruscan and Greek influence. A carnelian in the 
British Museum, for example, shows 
a girl asleep under a tree undergoing 
the traditional test of virginity 
peculiar to the cult of Juno Sospita 
of Lanuvium; and is probably the 
copy of an ex-voto put up in the 
Lanuvian temple by some grateful 
devotee who had successfully passed 
through the ordeal 1 (Fig. 52). 

Now and again if the miracle 
was of an extraordinary nature, like 
that of Androcles and the lion in 
the time of Tiberius, the picture 
was paraded through the streets 
FIG. 52.—THE MAIDEN’s orveaL. cem. for the edification of the people. 

(British Museum. Enlarged.) Pictures of popular devotion like- 
wise commonly figured in proces- 

sions. The custom may be said to be of all times and countries. A 
picture of Dionysus represented in a state of mystical inebriation 
shocked the matter-of-fact Athenzeus, who speaks with disapproval 
of its being carried through the Forum on its rustic cart. The 
artistic capacity of these painters of votive images may be gauged by 
the slighting tone in which Nevius (270-199 z.c.) alludes in his 
Tunicularia to one Theodotus (again a Greek), who seated in a 
thatched shelter painted with an ox’s tail, i.e. with a coarse brush, 
figures of dancing Lares on altars of the Compitalia. Recent 
excavations in Delos have thrown light on the passage by revealing 
little votive pictures of Lares, rapidly sketched in, and though roughly 
executed, not without vigour and grace (Fig. 53). No wonder that 
Theodotus was content to paint in a rough-and-ready manner figures 


1 Qn the gem we clearly see a branch representing the sacred grove of Juno where 
the girl was made to sleep, the basket of cakes which the sacred serpent was to eat if 
the girl was virtuous or to leave if the reverse, and the ants who, in pity, would 
sometimes come and eat the cake despised by the snake, while the sacred raven 
watches over the whole scene. The ears of corn on the right indicate that, if the girl 
is pure, the year will be fruitful. 6 


EARLY PAINTING AND SCULPTURE 


that would require renewing as often as the cross-way altars were 
whitewashed or replastered; no wonder either that he preferred 
to paint sitting in a shelter, for the time of the Compitalia was mid- 
winter. 

§ 7. Paintings for Gladiatorial Shows and the Theatre. —Another 
class of votive pictures was that painted to commemorate the gladia- 
torial games held on the death of illustrious personages. These 
pictures were often 
shown in public places 
before being dedicated 
and hung in a temple. 
The earliest instance 
known to history is 
referred to the pietas 
towards his adopted 
grandfather, of one C. 
Terentius Lucanus, pos- 
sibly the brother of FIG. 53.—RITUAL DANCES—WALL PAINTING IN DELOS. 
the patron of the phil- 
hellene poet Terence (195-159). This picture of a gladiatorial show 
is datable to about 100 .c.; it was afterwards put up in the sanctuary 
of Diana at Aricia (Pliny, 35, 33). Though probably not the first of 
its kind, it was among the forerunners of those gladiatorial repre- 
sentations of which we have examples from the late Republican 
period in the Munich relief (p. 96) and from the Julio-Claudian m 
the relief found at Chieti (p. 172), not to speak of the countless 
reliefs, pictures and mosaics of secondary merit from all periods of 
the Empire. 

The gladiatorial shows were likewise the occasion for a sort of 
poster art, much older doubtless than Horace (Sat., ii. 7, 96 f. ), who 
amusingly describes his slaves’ admiration of pictures of well- 
known gladiators painted with red chalk and charcoal, their legs 
“stiffly stretched out and as true to nature as if they were really 
striking, fighting or parrying blows.” This popular art was probably 
much on a level with that of the painters of Lares, though like the 
modern posters it may have had merits of its own. 

We hear of no scene painting before the first century, and the games 
of Appius Claudius Pulcher (p. 108). Plautus and Terence were 
apparently content with a stage of Shakespearian simplicity, and re- 
lied upon the beauty or force of their verses in such scenes as the 
opening of the Rudens. It is not till the elaboration of the stage in 
the last century of the Republic, in imitation of Hellenistic theatres, 
that painted scenery was introduced, which later, according to 


63 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


one school of archeology, came to be a factor of importance in the 
decorative schemes of Pompeian wall-painting. 

With pictures of shows and games may be classed a fragment of 
votive relief at Ny-Carlsberg representing a mule race (at the festival 
of the Consualia>) (Fig. 54). The head of one mule with neck 
stretched out and the upper part of a group of three women are alone 
preserved, but it is enough to show that the style has characteristics 
common to later Roman art. The three women pressing against one 
another are made to suggest a 
crowd of onlookers as skilfully as 
does the group of huddled figures 
of a Julio-Claudian relief (Sc. R. 
Fig. 41, on left; cf. also Esquiline 
fragment, p. 56). Within the 
same class is a small funeral urn 
of rectangular shape, recently ac- 
quired for the British Museum, 
and referable to this date. The 
frieze adorning it ‘is of unique im- 
portance; it represents two musi- 
cians leading a procession of young 
knights bearing palm _ branches 
towards a temple, in front of which 
an animal is brought up for sacri- 
fice (Fig. 46). The type of the 
men’s heads seems Roman rather 
than Etruscan; the horses’ heads 

FIG. 54.—ONLOOKERS AT A RACE. and movements are full of life 

OE Racer facies and vigour. In the pediment 

there is a Typhon of Etruscan 

character, but here again it is difficult to draw the line between 

Italic and Etruscan elements. From the abundant traces of gilding, 

and of red paint for the horses’ trappings, it is evident that the 

urn had much the appearance of a metal reliquary with coloured 
inlay. (Headpiece, Fig. 46.) 

§ 8. Portraiture.—A word must be added as to portrait painting, 
already a flourishing art under the Republic. One of its chief 
products was the imago clipeata imitated from the ancestral heads in 
wax or other material inserted within a shield. This type of portrait 
lasted throughout the Empire, and passed into Christian art, where it 
is familiar on the walls and soffits of catacombs and churches from the 
circular bust images of Christ and of the Saints. Often the imagines 
were linked together by lines so as to form a sort of genealogical tree 


EARLY PAINTING AND SCULPTURE 


in the entrance halls of the great. Rows of these portraits with 
inscriptions recording the name and the exploits of the person 
represented might also be painted in temples, as were at a later time 
the medallion portraits of Popes along the architrave of Christian 
basilicas (e. g. at S. Paul outside the walls). It is a moot question 
whether the medallion portraits of their ancestors put up by Appius 
Claudius in the temple of Bellona, and later by M. Aemilius called 
after his family, were painted or modelled. From the third or second 
century onwards it became the custom to portray distinguished 
people; it is not impossible that the medallion portrait of the poet 
Terence in a Carolingian MS. in the Bibliothéque Nationale is 
directly descended from some contemporary imago clipeata. 

$9. References to Painting in the 
Comic Writers——The numerous refer- 
ences to paintings in Plautus alone 
show that pictures were an integral 
part of Roman life. However much 
Plautus may have adopted Greek 
models, he would not rely upon allu- 
sions to pictures for some of his most 
telling effects, pointed jokes, and pic- 
turesque situations had pictures not 
been quite familiar to his public. 
The farcical scene in the Mostellaria 
(1. 832 ff.) in which Tranio makes the 
old gentleman look round helplessly to 
every quarter of the colonnade for the ric. 5;.—poo iw Mosaic FROM POMPET. 
picture of a crow pecking at two (Naples.) 
vultures, and fools him further by 
pretending to drive away a terrible watch-dog that was merely 
painted on the doorposts, are well-known examples. The cave 
canem of Pompei (Fig. 55) (though of later date and on the floor 
instead of on the wall) and the passage in Petronius in which Ascyltos 
falls straight into the pond at the sight of the watch-dog, and is 
promptly followed by his friend who, having always been terrified by 
the sight of a mere painted dog, now literally faints as he hears the 
bark of a real one, ought to have warned scholars of the absurdity of 
supposing that the Plautine animal was a “stuffed dog.” It is clear 
that watch-dogs—terrific,. barking and on the chain—either painted 
or in mosaic, were common features of Roman house decoration. 
They might appear on the front-door posts or in the hall to catch the 
eye of visitors—or thieves—immediately on entering. 

An interesting example of the early existence in Rome of pictures 

VOL. I. 65 F 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


on wax is afforded by the clause in the contract scene of the Asinaria 
(1. 767) stipulating that the girl Philenium shall be so carefully 
guarded from communication with the outside world that no picture on 
wax must be allowed near her lest she be tempted to use it as a writing 
tablet.—At the close of the Captives (1. 998) the slave Tyndarus 
compares the stone quarry where he has undergone punishment to 
pictures of hell he has seen, probably in some hall of initiation into 
the mysteries of the under-world. That scenes of the kind were 
commonly displayed in such places is evident from the stuccoes at 
the recently discovered Basilica near the Porta Maggiore (p. 167).— 
The comic reflection of the slave in the Epidicus (1. 626), who greatly 
fears his back is about to be painted in the colours of Apelles and 
Zeuxis—a passage intended to raise an immediate laugh—could only 
have turned out a frost had not the Romans known something even 
of the “‘old masters.”’ Finally, in the Menechmi (1. 144) the panel 
pictures of the “Eagle making off with Ganymede” or of “ Venus 
with Adonis,” anticipate the themes of Pompeian wall-paintings and 
may really be works of “‘old masters,’”’ or were they temple pictures 
in Rome? The spelling Cafameitos for Ganymede which has so 
much exercised the learned may after all be archaic Latin like the 
inscriptions noted by Quintilian, and have been copied by Plautus 
straight from the inscription. 

Terence, though later in date than Plautus, and more thoroughly 
Greek, has fewer allusions to painting; in the Eunuch we have the 
reflections of Chaerea as he meditates on a picture of “Danaé and 
the shower of gold,” a mythological subject in the Greek manner. 

§ 10. Paintings at Ardea.—Now as in earlier days (above, p. 29 f.) 
the Latin temples outside Rome were being decorated with wall- 
paintings, as, for instance, that of Juno at Ardea, which was decorated 
by one Plautius Marcus Lykon, whose name betrays the Romanized 
Greek. The inscription below his pictures was in old Latin characters 
and is worth quoting in full: 


“Dignis digna. Loco picturis condecoravit regine lJIunonis supremi 
coniugis templum Plautius Marcus, cluet Asia lata esse oriundus, quem nunc 
et post semper ob artem hanc Ardea laudat.” 

To the deserving be due honour paid. The temple of queenly Juno, wife 
of the almighty, did Lykon adorn with paintings, even Plautius Marcus, born 
in wide Asia, whom for his art Ardea praises. 


§ 11. Incised ciste and mirrors——The graffiti or incised designs 
which adorn the toilet caskets (cist) found at Preeneste are 
examples of later Roman or Romano-Etruscan decoration possibly 
based on Greek paintings v engravings of fourth-century 


EARLY PAINTING AND SCULPTURE 


date. The most celebrated of these engraved pictures adorns 
the Ficoroni Cista (Fig. 56), now in the Villa Giulia. As the 
work is inscribed in Latin characters 
of the third century, ‘‘ Novios Plautios 
made me at Rome, Dindia Macolnia 
gave me to her daughter” (Novios 
Plautios med Romai fecid Dindia Macol- 
nia fileai dedit), it cannot be doubted 
that we have here original Italic work 
made moreover in Rome itself. As 
the name of Novios Plautios is con- 
nected with Campania, the cista, like 
the Esquiline fresco, affords a link be- 
tween the Roman and the Campanian 
schools. The scenes from the legend 
of the Argonauts which form the 
subject of the picture are in the Greek 
manner, but with Latin details, such 
as the bulla worn by the local divinity, 
Smetaeeinotousemimicry. of the © sic. s6.—rar ricozonr casa. 
Silenus who beats upon his own (Villa Giulia.) 

paunch in imitation of the gestures 

of the Greek hero who is practicising punchball hard by. The same 
raciness is characteristic of certain Italic terra-cottas, and in fact of 
other Przenestine ciste and mirrors. A good instance is the ritual 
dance of a young Panand Marsyas (inscr. Marsuas) ona mirror in the 
Museo di Villa Giulia; the design is signed Vibis Pilipus czlavit. 
Philip the engraver was thus a Romanized Campanian Greek like the 
Novios Plautios of the Argonaut cista and the Plautius Lykon of the 
Ardea picture. Scholars have gone absurd lengths in order to prove 
direct copying from Greek models in this instance. But it is now 


nae vee 


izes tenet eo erm ti en csteer cent eatranaremrenaancrone ee acnnnet onan rangi Sy men 


OOD Ce he vere OD Voy 200 LILO xe Yo iene 


mi: ae aa Bho eR Ee yl) 
es ein aA BOUIN My a0 
CSR ae og Son et oe as “ & 
z Py * Se ays SN 2) j j XY ‘N, 
¥ mes iy. ¥ , " 


FIG. 57.—A KITCHEN SCENE—CISTA TYSZKIEWICZ. 


67 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


admitted that, though the influence is Greek, it had by this time been 
so well assimilated that men like Novios Plautios, like the die en- 
gravers and others, produced excellent original work. Another 
cista, scarcely less beautiful than the Ficoronian and severer in style, 
is the one with the magnificent scene of the sacrifice of the Trojan 
captives at the pyre of Patroclus (British Museum: Cat. Bronzes, 
638). It also brings before us, as so often, the Italic and the 
Roman predilection for the Trojan cycle. The homelier subjects 
of certain other cistz illustrated another 
side of the Latin genius. For instance, 
a cista formerly in the Tyszkiewicz 
collection (Fig. 57), shows a kitchen 
scene and the cooks hurrying to and 
fro with ‘viands and dishes; it is the 
forerunner of the kitchen scene on the 
Igel monument at Trier, and is possibly 
itself derived from Greco-Etruscan 
models, e.g. the scene in the Golini 
tomb at Corneto. Similar both in sub- 
ject and execution is a mirror from the 
same collection now in the British 
Museum (Fig. 58), on which are repre- 
sented a girl and a youth playing at 
draughts; above the girl are inscribed 
in archaic Latin the words deuincan ted 
and above the youth opeinor (Bronzes 


FIG. 58.—INCISED MIRROR. 


(British Museum.) B.M. 3213). 


II. StaTuARY IN THE FouRTH—SECOND CENTURIES B.C. 


§ 12. Greek Influence—Statues to Pythagoras and Numa.—tIn. 
statuary, if anywhere, we should look for Greek influence. Here 
again we see the effect of Apollo’s utterances in Delphi, which, like 
those of his Sibyl in Italy, invariably aimed at Ene Rome within | 
the pale of the older civilizations. During the Samnite wars, for 
instance, the Romans in a moment of distress consulted the oracle of 
Delphi and were advised to set up in the Comitium a statue to the 
bravest of the Greeks (Alcibiades) and another to the wisest (Pythag- 
oras). The statue to Pythagoras has an especially Sibyllo-Apolline 
connexion, since Apollo was the Pythagorean god par excellence 
(p. 131). An even neater link between the Roman and the Greek 
civilizations had already been forged by representing Numa—the 
wise law-giver—as the disciple of the illustrious Greek mystic, and 


EARLY PAINTING AND SCULPTURE 


it is possibly to the same period as the statue of Pythagoras that we 
should attribute the lost original of the statue in the cloister of the 
House of the Vestals recently identified as 
Numa, the pious founder of the Vestal Sister- | mg 
hood (Fig. 59). The king is shown bearded, his | 
head encircled with the royal diadem; he is 
closely draped in the toga, wears senatorial | im 
shoes, and probably once held a Jituus or|@ 
augural staff in the broken left hand. The 
technique points to about the period of Trajan; |= 
but in spite of refashionings to suit the taste of 
a later period, the general line of composition 
retains enough of the archaic model to justify 
the attribution of the statue to the fourth 
century. The original is thought to have been 
one of the bronze statues of the kings that stood 
at the entrance of the temple of Jupiter Capi- | u.” 
tolinus or, as we think more probably, the 

original like its later imitation stood quite [Photo, Ashby. 
simply in the cortile of the House of the’ °2; \usrats 
Vestals. 

§ 13. Statues and Portraiture of the Period.—It was in the third 
century that a famous statue was put up in the Forum which was twice 
copied on the well-known “anaglypha Traiani.” This was the 
Marsyas with the wine-skin (Fig. 60) that stood in the most frequented 
part of the Forum near the Preetorian tribunal, 
fenced in besides the sacred fig tree precisely as 
on the relief. The conception is akin to the 
Marsyas of the Prznestine mirror and to the 
Silenus of the Ficoroni cista. There is no 
reason for supposing that the work was the 
booty of a Greek city or Greek at all. The 
type is of Hellenic origin, but Italo-Roman 
schools that could produce artists capable of 
engraving these Palestrina ciste and mirrors 
and of designing the Capuo-Roman coinage 
were surely equal to creating a work like the 
Marsyas. The statue erected in the Forum by 
the Thurians in 285 s.c. to the plebeian Tri- 
bune Alius, who had been instrumental in 
relieving Thurii during a siege, is the first 
example of a statue put up in the Urbs by a 


FIG. 69.—MARSYAS. Z 
(Roman Forum.) foreign Power, and the statue must have been 


69 


-.: 
y 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME” 


standing as late as the Flavian period, since Pliny (xxxiv. 32) actually 
gives us a copy of the inscription recording that “ Aelius had carried 
a law against the Lucanian Sthennius 
Stallius, who had on two occasions 
molested the people of Thurii.” The 
mention of this statue is followed by 
another put up, says Pliny, by the same 
people of Thurii to Fabricius, “who had 
delivered them from a siege’ (282 B.c.). 
In style those two statues may have resem- 
bled the famous statue of the “ Arringa- 
tore’ (Fig. 61) in Florence which can be 
dated from the inscription to the period of 
the second Punic war. Though found at 
Arezzo in Etruscan territory, it is an 
example of a portrait midway between the 
old Etruscan manner and the newer Roman 


style influenced by Greek models. We 
FIG. 61.—THE “ARRINGATORE.” Thust doubtless reckon within the same 
ee) category the statue set up to himself by 
the poet Lucius Accius (1802-84? 3.c.) in 
the Temple of the Camenz (Muses) in memory of his presidency 
of the guild of poets, whose meeting-place was in this temple. The 
bronze head (Fig. 62) in the Con- 
servatori, long famous as a portrait 
of the first Brutus, has recently 
been claimed as an Etruscan work 
of the period we are considering, 
with marked affinities in the treat- 
ment of the pointed locks of hair, 
for instance, to Etruscan heads of 
terra-cotta. The fine head, in 
the British Museum, of a youth 
wearing the ¢utulus' has likewise 
been attributed to the Etrusco- 
Roman art of about 200 z.c. (Fig. 
63). It belonged to a statue, 
probably of an athlete, as the head 
has swollen ears. A bronze head 
from Bovianum, in the Louvre,  "S: §2-—ETRUSCO-ROMAN PORTRAIT. 
recently published by Studniczka Sanat 
also seems characteristic of the ; 
period. The whole group is at present under revision and dis- 


1 The tutulus or cap worn by priests and also by athletes (for protection). 


EARLY PAINTING AND SCULPTURE ° 


cussion. It is only fair to the reader to state that the latest tendency 
is towards pushing back the date of the Brutus and kindred heads 


as far as the fourth century B.c. 

The peperino head found in 
the tomb of Scipio Barbatus is 
now dated at about the close of 
the second Punic war. The 
youth wears a laurel wreath; 
this had led to identifying him 
with Ennius, who wrote a poem 
in praise of Scipio Africanus 
and whose statue—we know 
from Cicero—was placed in the 
tomb of the Scipios; since, how- 
ever, the statue was of marble 
and this head is of peperino, 
like the sarcophagus with which 
it was found, the identification 
must be abandoned. The bay- 
wreath points to a priest of Apollo 
rather than a poet; it has 
therefore been suggested that 
this is the portrait of a Scipio 


FIG. 63.—ETRUSCO-ROMAN HEAD. 
(British Museum.) 


who became a decemvir sacris faciundis and as keeper of the Sibylline 
books was in the service of the god, or the head may simply have 


FIG. 64.—BACCHUS. 
(Museo delle Terme.) 


belonged to a Scipio represented in the act of 
sacrificing, and therefore wearing the festal 
wreath. More distinctly Greek, presuma- 
bly, was the portrait statue of Cornelia, 
daughter of Scipio, the younger Africanus 
and mother of the Gracchi. The basis with 
its noble inscription CORNELIA AFRI- 
CANI Filia) GRACCHORUM (Sc. mater) 
is still extant and may be seen in the Museo 
Capitolino (C.I.I., vi. 2, 10043). From the 
long rectangular shape of the base we may 
infer that the lady was represented seated; 
and from the place where it was found, 
that the statue once adorned the porticus 
Metelli: of Greek character likewise may 
have been the portrait-statue of Flamininus 
the Liberator which stood by the Circus 
Maximus. Coins frequently throw light on 
this portraiture (Coin of Flamininus, Ber- 


7| 


ART IN. ANCIENT ROME 


noulli, I., Pl. I., 20). Rome was crowded with portrait-effigies, 
but it would be loading our text uselessly to give the lists of works 
known only from literature. Italic 
bronzes of this period are numerous 
and of very varying quality. For 
instance, the bronze statue of 
Bacchus in the Museo delle Terme 
which was found in the Tiber is 
only a somewhat prosaic Latin 
version of a Greek model (Fig. 64). 
A finer work, more precise in its 
outline, more vigorous and direct 
in conception, is seen in the Mars 
from Tuder (Todi) of the Museo 
Gregoriano (Fig. 65). As to the 
bronze votive statuettes found in 
considerable numbers near Rome, 
including the figures and groups 
on the handles of the Przenestine 
FIG. 65.—THE MARS FROM TODI (detail). cist, one or two of which are of 
(Vatican.) singular grace and beauty (Fig. 66), 
a number merely reproduce ordi- 
nary Greek types, others retain strong 
Etruscan traits, others again show new 
and independent characteristics. 
Again, the large semi-draped statuette 
from Falterona in the British Museum 
with head so individual that it suggests 
a portrait is one of the finest of these 
fourth to third century bronzes. 
Somewhat later in date are the 
two bronze statuettes of Gaulish 
warriors—one fighting, the other in 
repose—in the Museo delle Terme 
(H.A., 1724). And many images 
of ancient Latin divinities were set 
up in these centuries, doubtless in 
a new Hellenized form. We would 
give much to know the appearance 


= FIG. 66.—DIONYSOS AND SATYR. 
of the statue of Verminus, an old HANDLE OF CISTA. 


numen invoked against worms in (Villa Giulia.) 


cattle; its inscribed base of 
peperino, in the new Museo Mussolini, is dated to about 100 z.c. 


72 


EARLY PAINTING AND SCULPTURE 


§ 14. Museums and Art Collections—The rapid succession of 
Roman triumphs, in which works of art figured as the choicest spoils 
of the war, were soon to transform Rome into the greatest museum 
of the world, a position which she has never since abdicated. The 
pageant had begun in the fourth century with the triumphs over the 
conquered Etruscans. It was resumed in 212 3.c. with the triumph 
of Marcellus after the siege of Syracuse. In 187 3.c. Fulvius 
Nobilior displayed in his triumph over the A‘tolians two hundred 
and thirty statues of marble and two hundred and eighty-five of 
bronze removed from the collection of King Pyrrhus at Ambracia; 
of this splendour likewise, a record survives in a base of the Museo 
Mussolini which, as the inscription states, supported one of the 
statues from the Ambracian booty (C.I.I., vi. 1307). We are told 
that the Ambraciots sent envoys to Rome to represent the hardships 
of their loss and that they obtained a favourable hearing; but the 
Romans, more fortunate than the French after Waterloo, continued 
to postpone inquiry and finally dismissed the matter from their 
minds. Twenty years later, in 167 B.c., took place the triumphal 
procession of A“milius Paullus, when it is said as many as fifty chariots 
filled with statues and pictures were displayed, a pageant vividly 
described by Plutarch. Some twenty years later again, after the 
capture of Corinth in 146 8.c., Mummius, according to Pliny, “ filled 
all Rome with sculpture.’ On this occasion Mummius put up, 
among other memorials of his destructive campaign, a shrine and 
statue to Hercules, the dedicatory inscription of which has survived 
and may be seen in the Vatican (H-A, 130: C.I.L., vi., 331). In 
the same year 145 s.c., L. Lucullus was able to dedicate a number of 
works by Praxiteles borrowed, it is said, from Mummius, outside the 
temple of Good Luck or Felicitas. Within the temple of Mars which 
Hermodorus of Salamis built for D. Junius Brutus Callaicus, stood 
statues of Mars and Venus by Scopas, and within the porticoes that 
surrounded the marble temples of Juno and Jupiter in the porticus 
Metelli might be admired the most celebrated of the works of 
Lysippus, Alexander with his comrades at the battle of the Granicus, 
a bronze group brought over from Pella by Metellus in 149 B.c. The 
temple of the Fortune of the Day is described as crammed with works 
of art, among them Pheidian statues dedicated respectively by Acmilius 
Paullus and by Q. Lutatius Catulus, and the list could be indefinitely 
prolonged. By the side of the celebrated Greek masterpieces were 
works by lesser Greek sculptors, attracted to Rome like the architects 
by the report of the ever-increasing demand for works of art. Such 
are the statues of Apollo and the Muses from Tivoli, now in the 
Vatican, copies of a group whose authorship is much debated 


73 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 
(H-A., 263-270); and the colossal Hera of the Vatican Rotonda, 


in which certain scholars see a copy of the cult statue executed 
by Dionysius for Metellus Macedonicus (Plin. xxxvi. 35) and 
placed in the temple of the goddess within his Porticus, while 
others suggest that the original was the work of Polycles, also com- 
missioned by Metellus and standing near the same temple. 

The works of art exhibited at the triumphs and in the temples made 
visible the spirit of Hellenism in its most seductive form. But 
foreign influence is apt to be suspect, and the more conservative and 
old-fashioned among the Romans raised now and again a cry of 
alarm. Hostility to Greek ideas is best realized in the political and 
literary history of Rome. The repeated expulsion of the Greek 
philosophers—in 173 and 16] and again in 155—the scandalous 
though mysterious affair of the Bacchanalia are well-known instances 
of its occasional violence, and the formative arts fared no better. 
Cato’s contempt of Greek ideas was most bitter when he spoke of the 
arts of Greece. These he condemned as sources of scandal and 
luxury and we cannot suppose that he stood alone in this opinion. 
But no man escapes altogether frorn the intellectual atmosphere of 
his time. Cato’s asceticism has actually been shown to have its 
basis in Greek speculations; he who professed to scorn Greek 
letters yet protected the philhellene Ennius and borrowed from him 
the Hellenic legends of the 4neadz and the foundation of Rome, 
while he erected apparently on a Greek or Oriental model the basilica 
called after him. The very vehemence of the language in which he 
denounces the statues brought by Marcellus from Syracuse makes 
us suspect that he himself was not indifferent to their charm. The 
Hellenic element, like the Etruscan before it, had_come to stay. 
What was now needed was a~ ‘strong-unifying-influence that shou 
compel the diverse stréams to flow into a single channel. At the 
beginning ‘of the first century this was ee by Sulla, who in 
this as in much else anticipated, Caesar and initiated that final 
Romanization of Mediterranean Art which was accomplished under 
Augustus. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Anti, C., “Una Statua di Numa” (B.A.C., xlvii., 1919, p. 211). Bandinelli, 
Ranuccio Bianchi, Dedalo VII., 1927, pp. 1-36 (Capitoline ““Brutus’’). Bulard, M., 
“Peintures Murales et Mosaiques de Délos’’ (Mon. Piot, xiv., 1908; p. 42, n. 4— 
altars tothe Lares Compitales);—Exploration Archéol. de Délos (““Revétements peints 
4 sujets religieux’’), 1926. Della Seta, Boll. d’Arte, 1909 (for Plaques of Bone). 
Ducati, P., “La Sedia Corsini” (Mon. Ant. Linc., xxiv., 1916, pp. 401 f. pls. i-viii.). 
Esdaile, K., J.R.S., I., p. 212, pl. xxxi (Etruscan bronze head). Gerhard, G., 
Etruskische Spiegel (completed by A. Klugmann and G. Kérte), !884-97. 

74 


EARLY PAINTING AND SCULPTURE 


Griineisen, W. de, “Le Portrait” (Etudes Comparatives), 1911. Helbig, W., 
“La Sedia Corsini’ (Annali, 1879, p. 319; Monumenti, xi. pl. ix.). Jahn, O., 
Die Ficoronische Cista, 1852. WKaschnitz-Weinberg, G., “Ritratti Fittili Etruschi e 
Romani dal Secolo III al I av. Cristo.” (Pont. Ac. Rom. Rend., 1925;—R.M., XLI., 
1926 (St. zur Etr. und frith-rom. Portratkunst”’). Knapp, C., “References to 
Painting in Plautus and Terence” (Class. Philol., xii., 1917, pp. 143 f.). Korte, G., 
I Rilievi delle Urne Etrusche, 1890. Matthies, G., Die Prznestinischen Spiegel, 1912. 
Pfuhl, E., Malerei und Zeichnung der Griechen, 1923. Raoul-Rochette N., Peintures 
Antiques Inédites, 1836. Reinach, A., “Fabius Pictor; les fresques du temple de 
Salus et les origines de la peinture 4 Rome” (Studi Romani, ii. p. 233 f.). 
Schumacher, K., Eine Prenestinische Ciste zu Karlsruhe, 1891. Six, J., in R.M., 
IX., 1894, p. 112, ff. (Portrait of Flamininus (>) in Berlin). Studniczka, F., 
Festgabe zur Winchelmannsfeier, Leipzig, 1926. (“Drei friihe Romerkopfe’’). 
Urlichs, L., “Die Malerei in Rom vor Caesars Dictatur,” 1876; ‘‘Griechische 
Statuen im Republikanischen Rom,” 1880 (both in Stiftungsfeter Program des 
Wagnerschen Kunstinstitutes). Walters, H. B., in Brit. Mus. Quarterly, I., 1926, 
p. Il ff. and pl. II (urn in B.M.);— Select Bronzes in the Brit. Mus. (Pl. LXVI., 
Etruscan head; Pl. XXXVIII., Falterona bronze). Weege, F., “Oskische Grab- 
malerei” (Jahrbuch, xxix, 1909, pp. 99 f.). 


75 


[Photo, Delbrueck. 
FIG. 67.—CENTRAL PORTION OF T. OF FORTUNE AT PRZENESTE (COD. URSINUS. VAT. 51.) 


CHAPTER V 


THE LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC—THE MASTER- 
BUILDERS—SULLA AND THE REPLANNING OF 
ROME—POMPEY THE GREAT AND JULIUS CASSAR— 
HELLENISTIC INFLUENCES. 


In the last century of the Republic, Greek influence and fashions 
seemed definitely established in Rome. Military and _ political 
operations gave the final impulse. The wars of Sulla and of Pompey 
against Mithridates, and Pompey’s conquest of Syria opened out 
to the Romans that Grzco-Oriental world of which only the fringe 
had before been accessible to them. This fresh enlargement of the 
political horizon was not without its corresponding effect upon art. 
The erection of grandiose public buildings directly imitated from 
canoe or only slightly older Hellenistic models became the 
rule 

§ 1. Sulla and his Buildings —First among the leaders of tk:s new 
activity was Cornelius Sulla, the conqueror of Greece, who, though 
he treated Athens with drastic cruelty, showed himself a passionate 
lover of Greek art. During his short dictatorship he planned to 
rebuild Rome on the model of the great capitals he had seen in 
the Hellenistic East. He began with the temple of Jupiter on the 
Capitol, which had been burnt down in 85 z.c. On the ruins of the 


THE LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC 


old Etruscan temple now rose a more splendid one of marble. The 
roof was tiled with bronze, and the pediment adorned with a group 
of the Wolf and Twins. A gold and ivory statue in the Greek manner, 
executed by one Apollonius, replaced the old terra-cotta Jupiter; 
of the new statue some notion may be formed with the help of 
Roman reliefs and Pompeian paintings (cf. Vol. II., p. 57). The 
restoration of the Capitol was part of a scheme for rebuilding on a 
grander scale the ancient Italic shrines. 

In order to carry out the systematization of the Capitoline Hill 
Sulla decided to unite it with the Arx; this was effected by means 
of the Tabularium, which filled up the long saddle between the two 
summits and masked it 
completely on the side » 
of the Forum. The 
purpose of the Tabu- 
larium, or record office 
of ancient Rome, was 
to receive the city 
archives and to replace 
the old ezrarium Sa- 
turni. It was finished 
and dedicated after 
Sulla’s death by his 
friend Q.  Lutatius 
Catulus, the Consul of 


78 B.C., aS we learn FIG. 68.—TABULARIUM—BEFORE RESTORATION. 


from the inscription 
still to be seen engraved over the doorway of one of the chambers 
(Gl Pein). ; 

The Tabularium stands on a substructure 1] metres high of 
blocks of sperone (lapis babinus) probably faced with stucco, through 
which a corridor with rectangular windows ran from end to end; 
the Forum frontage has a long arcade 10 metres high, 15 metres 
deep, one intercolumniation of which is still visible. It seems 
certain that the original building had a second storey which was com- 
pletely destroyed by Michelangelo for the Palace of the Senator. 
At the back of this imposing facade on the West were the actual 
offices. The general aspect of the building is clear (Fig. 68). The 
first storey exhibits that combination of columns or half-columns and 
round arch which became characteristic of Roman Imperial archi- 


1 As to the legend that Sulla robbed the still unfinished Olympieion of Athens of 
several of its Corinthian columns, this seems disproved by coins of the year 51 B.c. 
which show the Sullan temple as still of the Doric order. 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


tecture. The piers behind each half-column represent the end of 
cross partitions that unite the front and rear walls, and divide the 
arcade lengthwise into eleven chambers. The three varieties of 
vaulting for which Roman architecture became famous may be seen 
in the Tabularium: cloister vaulting above the chambers of the 
arcade; barrel vaulting over certain rooms at the back; and cross 
vaulting apparently over one chamber on the North side of the 
building. The Tabularium, besides being the only one of Sulla’s 
buildings in Rome that has escaped complete destruction, is of great 
importance for its use of continuous arcading on a large and 
impressive scale. <2 

Sulla also turned his attention to the Forum, where he planned 
new Rostra and a new Curia; but his unexpected abdication of 
power, followed by his death at the comparatively early age of sixty, - 
robbed him of the satisfaction of seeing the completion of his schemes. 
Dr. Esther Van Deman, who has recently put Sulla in his true place 
at the head of the series of great men who replanned Rome on an 
Imperial scale, thus sums up his activities: — 


“With the passing of time the monuments of Sulla, like his name, were 
forgotten. The splendid temple of Jupiter, which had been his last great 
passion, and the Tabularium were finished by Catulus, whose name they bore. 
The site of his Curia was dedicated to the ‘happy fortune’ of another and his 
Rostra perished in flames in less than three decades. Is it strange that his 
Forum also was swept away in the rise to power of the great master-builders 
of the early empire; and that even its memory was lost for many long 
centuries >” 


The fact is that in Rome itself Sulla had little opportunity of 
giving any proof of his ability as a town-planner; the colonies, 
however, which he planted all over Italy to house his veterans bear 
witness to his activity in this direction. The splendid Colonia 
Sullana of Pompeii—too vast a subject for treatment here—is the 
best known example; and the Ostia of the Sullan period has been 
disclosed by recent research. The old Ostian castrum or fortified 
citadel had developed into an urbs as far back as 266 8.c., but it was 
Sulla presumably who enclosed it within walls strengtheced by 
towers. It is highly probable that Sulla planned to give his colonies 
as far as possible the regular shape with streets or avenues at right 
angles introduced by the adoption of the Hippodamic reforms 
(p. 43 f.). 

A characteristic movement of the period was—as we have seen— 
the rebuilding of the temples. The Temple of Fortune at Preneste 
(Palestrina) from whose ruins we can still evoke the complete 
structure, is one of the architectural triumphs of the age. It was the 


78 


THE LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC 


monument of the Dictator’s victory over the Marians, and Sulla, 
who surnamed himself Felix and thought himself the favourite of 
Fortune, made it his special care, 
and established here another 
Colonia Sullana. The site itself 
is of unparalleled grandeur, with 
its ten terraces that recall Strabo’s 
epithet of Przneste as ‘‘many 
crowned”; it has the halo of 
remote antiquity, for here from 
time immemorial had been a 
shrine. to that Fortuna Primi- 
genia, first-born of the gods, 
whose oracular fame spread far 
beyond the borders of Latium ric. 69.—1arcr mosaic AT PALESTRINA. 
and competed with that of (Detail.) 
Delphi and of Dodona. Cicero 
has left us a classic description of oracle and shrine and of the 
statue of the goddess, who was represented as nursing the infants 
Jupiter and Juno. It is not known 
+ whether Sulla’s soldiery had de- 
7) | stroyed the ancient shrine wholly 
or in part during the siege of 
Preneste, but it is certain that 
efter the events of 82 B.c. the 
temple was rebuilt on an impres- 
sive scale. The buildings on the 
lower and principal platforms are 
comparatively well preserved (Fig. 
67); they consist of a long central 
court with what is probably the 
"=| temple of the goddess on the one 
i | side and on the other the grotto 
where the oracles were delivered. 
The architecture of the rear wall 
of the court recalls the Roman 
Tabularium; the wall surfaces are 
re oo or tee’ broken up, but windows flanked 
by rectangular ornamental slabs 
take the place of the arcades 
between the columns. Above this lower pillared storey rises a 
second storey consisting of a series of arches resting on plain piers. 
The temple itself, on the right of the lower terrace, consists of a 


ie 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


long chamber ending in a domed apse with three large niches for 
the statues of Fortuna, of Jupiter and of Juno. The apse was paved 
with the celebrated mosaic repre- 
senting scenes on the river Nile, 
which is now to be seen in the 
Barberini Palace above (Fig. 69). 
The side and end walls are divided 
into rectangular niches, separated 
by engaged columns; below the 
wall, and projecting from it, runs 
a podium with an elegant base 
- moulding and a frieze of triglyphs 
and rosettes. On the left of the 
same terrace was the oracular 
grotto, which had an exquisite 
mosaic pavement representing an 
inland bay with fish swimming 
in it, and a shrine of Poseidon on 
the shore (Fig. 70) (Vol. II., p. 31). 
FIG. 71.—ROUND TEMPLE AT TIVOLI. The terraces of the temple are in 
ruins, but patches of the primitive 
masonry connecting the lower terrace with the topmost buildings are 
still visible. The whole ended in a great hemicycle flanked by 
arcades and crowned apparently by a small circular chapel. The 
temple in its final form can 
be seen from every near 
point of Latium, and from 
the Alban and the Volscian 
hills. As a public monu- 
ment of a grandeur rival- 
ling the Roman Capitol it 
is unique in its juxta- 
position of the primitive 
art of Latium with the 
Hellenic art introduced in 
the last century of the Re- 
public. Italic and Italian 
architects are supreme 
FIG. 72.—IONIC TEMPLE (LEFT) AT TIVOLI. masters of terraced con- 
struction: Preneste de- 
velops Alatri’s platform and Norba’s terraces (see p. 22), and in the 
Renascence becomes itself the model for Bramante’s Belvedere, and 
for the hanging gardens devised by Luciano Laurana in the 
Villa Imperiale at Pesaro. 


80 


THE LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC 


The Sullan Tabularium and the Prenestine temple are the two 
chief representatives of the new architecture. We may now 
glance more briefly at 
other monuments of the 
period. It is again in 
the neighbourhood of 
Rome rather than in 
Rome itself, where so 
much was destroyed by 
later rebuilding, that we 
must look for examples. 
Among the most striking 
are the temples of Tibur 
(Tivoli), also apparently 
of Sullan date. The fa- 
mous round temple (Fig. FIG. 73.—IONIC TEMPLE BY TIBER. ROME. 
71) which, as its shape peta rtataeen) 
seems to imply, was ded- 
icated to Vesta, has delicate Hellenic detailé Corinthian capitals, a 
doorway and window with beautiful mouldings; a frieze adorned 
with dainty garlands and a colonnade with a richly coffered ceiling 
that deserve careful study. These 
Greek forms notwithstanding, the 
temple rises on a Roman podium. 
On the left of the round temple, 
and likewise in the Hellenistic 
manner, is a small Ionic temple in 
antis with engaged columns on 
three sides and a tetrastyle portico 
in front (Fig. 72). This type of 
temple, the so-called pseudoperip- 
teros, found great favour in Rome; 
in a crowded city it gave the 
semblance of a colonnade where 
there was no room for a real one. 
The Romans seem to have bor- 
rowed the idea from such Greek 
models as the monument of Ly- 
sicrates at Athens, or nearer home = ¥1c. 74.—CELLA WALL OF T. OF HERCULES. 
the famous temple of Zeus at mV OL. 

Akragas (Agrigentum= Girgenti). 

A well-known Roman example is the Ionic temple by the Tiber, now 

thought to have been dedicated to “Fortuna Virilis” (Fig. 73). The 

cella, like that of the small emple at Tivoli, has a false pteron, con- 
VOL. I. 8 G 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


sisting of five engaged columns at each side and four on the rear wall 
(counting the corner column twice). But it differs in the deeper 
portico, which has an extra column on either side. This temple also 
rises on a podium and has the steep Roman pediment, though 


Greek influence is evident in the profile of frieze and cornice; the 


oo — 


more delicate mouldings were completed in stucco, and a stucco 
coating was also given to the columns; the style points to the age of 
Sulla. The temple has recently been freed of modern disfigurements 
and isolated from its sordid surroundings. 

At Tivoli again, on the site now occupied by the Cathedral of San 
Lorenzo, once rose a famous temple of Hercules, the Heracleum of 
Tibur, as renowned a place of pilgrimage as the Temple of Fortune 
at Preneste. Like the temple of Hercules in the Cattle Market 
at Rome, it had a circular 
cella; remnants of its walls 
built of blocks of tufa in opus 
incertum are visible immedi- 
ately behind the apse of the 
cathedral (Fig. 74). The tem- 
ple stood within a vast precinct 
which appears to have covered 
the ground between the cathe- 
dral and the plain. Its walls 

(PhoiocAskey, Were faced with precious mar- 

FIG. 75.—PLATFORM OF T. OF JUPITER, bles, and every available space 

TERRACINA. was crowded with statues. 

At a later date we hear 

of the Emperor Augustus visiting the shrine and restoring certain of 

its ancient privileges; to this restoration we must refer the splendid 

arcaded court of the Augustales, part of which is still standing. The 

resemblance of the arcades to those of the Tabularium is so marked 

that we may imagine the court to have been a creation of the Sullan 

period, while owing its present construction, of concrete faced with 
stucco, to Augustus. 

The erection or restoration of vast temple precincts was charac- 
teristic of the period. We have considered Preneste and the 
Heracleum of Tivoli; to these we may add as a third the temple of 
Jupiter at Anxur (Terracina), the huge platform of which is still 
visible, supported on substructures of opus incertum (Fig. 75). 
When the temple was standing there can have been little even in Asia 
Minor to eclipse its splendour. | 

Again, the little tetrastyle temple at Cora (Cori) said—but without 


proof—to have been dedicated to Hercules, is shown by the details of 
82 


WieeoAst CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC 


its architecture (mouldings, the 
delicate triglyphs and guttz, the 
lions’ heads of the cornice) to 
belong to the same period as the 
monuments we have been consid- 
ering (Fig. 76). But, in addition 
to the deep portico, the high 
podium. and the steep pediment, 
it possesses a further primitive 
characteristic in the breadth of its 
intercolumniations and the slen- 
derness of its columns—traits that 
recall a period when columns 
needed only to be light and far 
apart to support the comparatively 
small weight of a wooden archi- Piola, Dairaed. 
iavestig, //). lhe temple, FIG. 76.—TEMPLE AT CORI. 
which stood in the midst of a 
colonnaded enclosure, is one of the rare examples of Roman Doric. 
It might appear a singular fact that the Romans made comparatively 
little use of the Doric—except in decorative combinations)—though 
its severity seems in harmony with their genius. But the temples of 
South Italy had no influence upon early Roman architecture; and 
when Rome came under the direct influence of Greece, the period 
of the Doric had passed and its 
simple massiveness had given way 
to the more complicated Tonic and 
Corinthian of the great buildings of 
Asia Minor. Moreover, the Corin- 
thian column, as v. Gerkan (p. 155) 
well remarks, is essentially Roman in 
all its rich variations, and its accen- 
tuation of verticalism harmonizes 
with the Roman spirit. Verticalism 
—the desire for height and upward 
movement—early made itself felt in 
Roman art. To it we owe the high 
podium which differentiates Roman 
from Greek temples (p. 14) and the 
fact that the Doric only appears as at 
Cori, raised upon a base, or as in 
(Photo, Delbrueck. the Tuscan variation. Two columns 
FIG. 77.—VESTIBULE OF T. OF (TORI. of a Corinthian temple of Hellenistic 


83 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


date, supposed to have been dedicated to the Castores, may also be 
seen at Cori (Fig. 78). 

A fifth great sanctuary completely restored at this time was that 
of Diana by the lake of Nemi. 
It stood within a huge precinct or 
temenos within which were smaller 
shrines or chapels dedicated to 
Diana herself and to kindred divin- 
ities. It was then presumably that 
the old terra-cotta revetments were 
superseded by the bronze casings 
of which considerable fragments 
are now in the Museo delle Terme. 
Further, the fragment of a quiver 
seems to have belonged to a bronze 
or perhaps to a chryselephantine 

PES Hs. statue of the goddess within the 

FIG. 78.—CORINTHIAN couming temple. The riches of the shrine 

OF PART ARCHITRAVE. and the number of its ex-votos were 
alike extraordinary. 

Among buildings of the Sullan period still visible in Rome we may 
note the sepulchral zxdicula of C. Poplicius Bibulus situated at the 
foot of the Capitoline hill to the East of the Flaminian road, just 
outside the Porta Fontinalis. It was repeatedly drawn in the 
Renascence and is the 
subject of one of Piranesi’s 
most beautiful prints; 
but is now completely 
dwarfed by the Vittorio 
Emanuele monument. Its 
design, decoration (frieze 
of wreaths hanging be- 
tween ox skulls) and 
lettering of the inscription 
(C.LL. i. 635) are all 
Sullan, but the name 


causes a_ difficulty: if 
Bibulus must be identified FIG. 79.—ARCH UNDER PALAZZO ANTONELLI. 


with the zdile of 208 B.c., ; 
we can only suppose that the little building was restored at a much 
later date. 

Finally, the walls of Rome—repaired as a defensive measure against 


Marius during Sulla’s absence from Italy in 87 3.c.—deserve a 


84 


a Ast CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC 


passing mention. It is to this reconstruction that we may attribute 
the well-preserved arch under the palazzo Antonelli that so long 
passed for one of the gates of the Servian wall (Fig. 79). 

Two bridges, the Pons Fabricius and the Pons Cestius, which 
respectively unite the Isola Tiberina with the southern and northern 
banks of the Tiber, belong to the first half of the first century B.c. 
The Pons Fabricius, which now goes by the name of the “Ponte de’ 
Quattro Capi” from the four-faced Janus heads of the balustrade, 
was built by L. Fabricius according to the inscription sti!l visible 
upon the bridge in 62 B.c., while another inscription states that 
the bridge was examined and found in good repair in 21 3B.c. by the 
consuls Q. Lepidus and M. Lollius. It has, however, been so 
repeatedly restored that it is difficult to make out the ancient parts. 
The same applies to the Pons Cestius,which was rebuilt in late Imperial 
times by the Emperor Gratian and so entirely altered in modern 
days that only its central arch is now ancient. 

§ 2. The Buildings of Pompey.—The next phase of building 
activity in Rome is connected with the name of Pompey. After 
his victories in Pontus and Syria, he erected in 55 B.c. a superb group 
‘ of buildings, including a portico, a curia, vast colonnades, and the 
famous theatre. Apart from the attempt made in 154 z.c. by the 
Censor C. Cassius Longinus to erect a permanent theatre, Pompey’s 
is the first stone theatre put up in Rome. The outline on the 
Capitoline plan (F.U.R. 30) is too small to afford any clear notion 
of its shape. That it followed the ordinary Hellenistic model 
seems almost certain from Plutarch’s story that Pompey conceived 
the idea of erecting it while attending a musical contest held in his 
honour in the theatre of Mitylene. The walls of the huge cavea 
developed conspicuous architectural features, which reappear in the 
theatre of Marcellus (p. 147) and the later amphitheatres. They 
were divided into superposed storeys of arcades decorated as a rule 
with Doric columns in the lowest, Ionic in the middle and Corin- 
thian in the topmost tier, while the spaces between the columns 
were treated as arches, as in the Tabularium. 

The splendour of the decoration and inner fittings of these theatres 
may be gathered from the description of the one theatre put up in 
58 z.c. by Scaurus, Pompey’s Questor in the third Mithridatic war. 
Its temporary character notwithstanding, 360 columns and over 
3000 statues of bronze adorned, it is said, the stage alone. The lower 
storey of the stage-wall was of white marble, the middle was faced with 
glass slabs,! and the top with gilt panels. 


1 The glass slab, Kisa, p. 393, Fig. 193 (after Passeri), cannot, from the style of the 
arcading, belong to this theatre, but must be at least as late as the second century. 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


All, however, was not plain sailing with the innovators. Pompey’s 
theatre attracted the opposition of the old-fashioned party, who 
strongly resented the introduction of non-Roman ideas. According 
to a story preserved by Tertullian, Pompey could only still the out- 
cry by declaring that it merely formed the approach to the temple of 
Venus Victrix which he erected at the top of the cavea. As the temple 
dates from the time previous to the rupture between Pompey and 
Cesar, when Pompey had to wife Caesar's daughter Julia, its dedica- 
tion to Venus, ancestress of the Julian gens, may mark a first step 
in that glori- 
fication of the - 
Julii which 
afterwards 
pervaded 
Cesarian and 
Augustan 
Rome. 

The theatre 
was the spe- 
cial care of the 
Emperors, 
and we hear 
of its being 
repeatedly 
restored —the 
last time be- 


Fic. 80.—PAN. ween 507 and FIG. 81.—BRONZE HERCULES. 
(Mus. Capitoline.) 511, under (Vatican.) 
Theodoric. 


Of the many statues and works of art that adorned this theatre 
and the neighbouring buildings, three have been preserved: two 
Pans now in the Capitoline Museum (Fig. 80) (which, however, 
appear to be of later date and probably belong to an Imperial 
restoration) and the gilt-bronze Heracles in the Rotunda of the 
Vatican (Fig. 81). It is noteworthy that the Heracles reproduces 
a type of the god familiar on Syrian coins, so that Pompey may 
have returned from the East with this very statue, or else have 
had a statue he had seen in Syria copied for Rome. 

§ 3. The Buildings of Cesar——The third great master builder of 
the century was Cesar. During his edileship in 55 z.c., and his 
consulship in 59 3.c., he had already shown his interest in art; under 
his short dicatorship he entirely re-planned the city. Imperial Rome, 
the Rome which Augustus ies ys he had found of brick and left 


THE LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC 


of marble, really emanated from the brain of Czsar; but his great 
schemes were cut short by his untimely death, and what he had begun 
was interrupted or delayed by a long period of civil war and only 
finished by Augustus, destined here as in much else to give visible 
shape to the vast conceptions of his adopted father. One of Czsar’s 
projects was for a new Forum to the North of the old. This was the 
first in the chain of Imperial Fora that constitute the Empire’s most 
lasting contribution to the embellishment of the city. Czsar’s 
Forum was planned as the precinct of the temple of the Julian Venus 
Genetrix. The statue of the goddess was by the Greek sculptor 
Arcesilaus of Cyrene; it is known from contemporary and later 
reliefs (p. 96). This solemn introduction of the cult of Venus, 
ancient protectress of Troy, was another step in that Trojanization of 
Rome which prepared the way for Rome’s spiritual hegemony in 
virtue of her Trojan descent, and made it possible to substitute 
definite Roman for borrowed Hellenic ideals. But the ancestral 
goddess had still to be lodged in the Augustan Pantheon and in the 
Augustan Temple of Mars before her naturalization was an accom- 
plished fact. The temple was vowed before the battle of Pharsalia in 
48 z.c. and dedicated after the triumph of 46 8.c. In front of it stood 
the bronze equestrian statue of the Dictator. Of all this splendour 
nothing remains but some tufa and travertine blocks of the outer 
walls, and a few architectural fragments now in the Villa Medici. 
Within the Forum was a fountain decorated with statues of nymphs. 
surnamed the Appiades, to which we shall return later (p. 100). 
Cesar likewise attempted to give a rectangular plan to the Roman 
Forum by placing the Rostra at its upper end, flanked by the two 
basilicas, but this and much else that he contemplated was only 
carried out after his death, and will be considered in the chapter on 
Augustus. 

An allusion at least must be made to the parks or gardens (horti) 
that now sprang up on the periphery of the Urbs; those of the 
historian Sallust on the Quirinal; of Lucullus on the Pincian, and 
of Cesar himself (Hor. Sat., I., 9, 18) near the Porta Portuensis, 
are among the most celebrated. They contained casinos, halls and 
sometimes temples, and were thus a significant element in Roman 
town-planning. In them a garden-art first makes its appearance in 
Rome and Italy, since, as their name (Aorti) indicates, they were 
partly laid out in flower-beds, possibly adorned with statues. 

§ 4. Building activity in the neighbourhood of Rome and Italy.— 
The building activity of the last century of the Republic made 
itself felt in the neighbourhood of Rome also. Long viaducts that 
spanned whole valleys anticipated the Pont du Gard or the bridge 

87 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME | 


of Alcantara, and replaced 
the simple arches which at 
an earlier date had bridged 
the streams that drained 
the valleys. At the Ponte 
di Nona (Fig. 82) nine 
miles from Rome on the 
Via Pranestina we can 
actually see the arches of 
the old bridge under the 
later structure. The Ponte 
Amato at the eighteenth 

(Photo, Ashby. Milestone is of approxi- 
FIG. 82.—PONTE DI NONA. mately the same date 


(Fig. 83). 


Civic pride now began to 
stir in the smaller towns, 
where the city gates especial- 
ly begin to acquire artistic 
merit. Among early exam- 
ples are the three beautiful 
gates at Hispellum (Spello) 
which may be dated to about 
the middle of the first cen- 
tury. The Porta Venere, (Photo, Ashby. 
which was drawn by the ar- FIG. 83.—PONTE AMATO. 
chitect Serlio in the Renas- 


cence when it was nearly intact (Fig. 
84), had three ways and was flanked 
by polygonal towers; it was perhaps 
inspired by some example in Asia 
Minor; but it is the first of those ma- 
jestic Roman gateways which, like 
the Porta Palatina at Turin, or the 
Porta Nigra at Trier, are so distinc- 
tive a feature of Rome’s Imperial 
sway. Thesecond gate or Porta Con- 
solare likewise had three passages 
which, though half buried, still form 
the main entrance to the town (Fig. 
85). Its splendid travertine masonry 
ae was once faced with marble. Finally, 
sIG, 84.—PORTA VENERE, spetzo, the smaller but'well-preserveau one 

(Serlio.) Santa Ventura, with its single arch, 


88 


THE LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC 


is of more primitive form 
and affords an interesting 
contrast to the two more 
ornate gateways (Fig. 86). 
The arch, which is flanked 
by flat Doric pilasters, sur- 
mounted by architrave and 
pediment, recalls Sullan 
models. The double zate 
of Aquino, with its square 
court, dates probably from 
the Roman colony of 41 
B.c.,thoughit preserves the 
typeof the older Janus gate FIG. 85.—PORTA CONSOLARE, SPELLO. 

of early Republican times. 

After the gates come the arches which at this time were erected in 
great profusion throughout Italy. The now demolished arch of the 
Gavii, at Verona, has been attributed to the end of the Republic; and 
outside Italy we have a notable example of the same period in the 
famous arch of Orange, now dated from the character of its sculpture 
between 49 and 44 z.c., and thought to commemorate Czsar’s 
conquest of Gaul, (battle-scenes and friezes) and his Mediterranean 
victories (the naval trophies). At Spoleto, the arch (Fig. 87) 
bearing the name of Germanicus, in whose honour it was re-conse- 
crated, is clearly Republican and may be as old as the recolonization 
of Spoletium after its destruction by Sulla. Aquino, besides the 

double gate already mentioned, 
possesses a fine arch, generally half 
flooded (Fig. 88), which possibly 
commemorated, like the gate, the 
establishment of the Roman colony. 
Other instructive remains of the 
period that preceded Augustus may 
be seen within an easy radius of 
Rome: at Tuder (Todi) the pilas- 
tered niches’ of the so-called 
Forum; at Ascoli, a well-preserved 
bridge and a double city-gate; at 
Assisi, the ruins of a Republican 
Forum below the level of the 
present piazza. But for all these 
there is no space in the modest 
compass of this book. We will only 
FIG. 86.—PORTA SANTA VENTURA, SPELLO. mention in conclusion the walls 


89 


ia 


fi 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME / 


and gates of Ferentino, since authorities seem now agreed in dating 
them to the first century (Fig. 89). In Greece likewise the Romans 
continued to give proof of 
their building activity, as, 
for instance, at Eleusis, 
where the little Propylea 
with the porticus of the 
Caryatids was erected by 
Appius Claudius Pulcher, 
who died ab. 48 B.c. 

Any notice of building 
operations in Italy during 
the last century of the 
Republic must include a 
reference at least to the 
numerous’ villas — which 

FIG. 87.—ARCH AT SPOLETO. sprang up at this period in 
various parts of the country, 
more especially in the Roman Campagna, in the Alban and Sabine 
hills, and along the Campanian coast. The villas of Sulla, Pompey, 
Julius. Cesar, Lucullus, Crassus, Hortensius and Cicero were 
among the most celebrated. These country seats were not only often 
magnificent in themselves, but they were local centres of culture upon 
which critical and creative instincts might be developed. Their 
general character may be recorded with the help of Pompeian wall- 
paintings, where they are frequently represented: within the villa or 
park was a main habitation or casino, generally with colonnaded 
facade and wings, while 
a number of smaller build- 
ings for use or pleasure 
were dotted about the 
grounds. The arrange- 
ment reappears on a 
glorified scale in the 
domus aurea. of Nero and 
in the Imperial villas of 
Domitian at Albano and 
of Hadrian at Tibur. 
(Photo, Ashby. To adorn these villas 
FIG. 88.—ARCH AT AQUINO. and the monuments of 
Rome, Greece was ran- 
sacked for original works of art, and the collecting mania spread 
rapidly. An interesting proof of ae was afforded by the recovery in 


THE LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC 


1901 and 1907 of two shiploads of marbles and bronzes, one at 
Antikythera off Cape Malea, and one near Mahdia on the North 
African coast. There is evidence that both were wrecked during the 
first century B.c., and both have been identified as part of the convoy 
which was carrying back to Rome the spoils of Sulla’s capture of 
Athens in 86 s.c. As far as the Antikythera find is concerned, the 
conjecture gains support from Lucian 
(Zeuxis, ili.), who says that Sulla lost 
a famous painting of Zeuxis at this 
very place; the coincidence is cer- 
tainly striking. In spite of his sur- 
name, Felix Sulla was apparently 
not always fortunate in his artistic 
enterprises. 

We should like to know more of 
the artistic decorations of the home- | & 
lier villas. Not all the owners were | & 
wealthy aristocrats able or caring to | 
import Lysippian statues, or paint- 
ings by Antiphilus. Like the Reatine 
Villa of Axius in Varro’s Treatise on 
Farming (iii. 5), they were covered 
with pictures of agricultural and pas- 
toral pursuits. It was neither the 
art of medieval cathedrals nor that 
of the later Flemings and Dutch 
that first discovered the possibilities of what are called “genre”’ 
subjects. This was first accomplished by the Romans in the art 
that developed from the closing century of the Republic onwards. 
Greek vases and certain Greek reliefs show that these themes had 
been attempted by the Greeks, and Egyptian art is full of them; 
but in our Western world the Romans were the first systematically 
to explore their possibilities. The gesta hominum soon loomed large 
and eclipsed the gesta deorum. But the interest in human happenings 
was not confined, as the accidents of archeology tend to make it 
appear, to the camp, the army and the triumph, but included the 
agricultural and industrial activities of man. The vineyard and 
the winepress, the farm, the factory and the shop provided artists 
with material for new observation and imparted to their work a 
new imaginative stimulus. 


[Photo, Ashby. 
FIG. 89.—GATE OF FERENTINO. 


91 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


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Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire, |926, p. 60, Pl. VIII., p. 62, Pl. IX. 
(Roman Villas). Thiersch, H., Antike Bauten fiir Musik, 1910. Vaglieri, D.., 
“Preneste e il suo tempio”’ (Bull. Com., 1909, p. 212). Van Deman, E. Boise, 
Atrium Vestz, 1909;—“The Sullan Forum” (J.R.S., 1922, p. 1). 


92 


FIG. 90.—SACRIFICE TO MARS. RELIEF FROM ALTAR. 
(Louvre.) 


CHAPTER VI 


Peete Nt URY OF THE REPUBLIC: SCULPTURE 
AND PAINTING 


§ 1. Modifications of Hellenic Forms to suit Roman Subjects— 
Sepulchral Reliefs—In sculpture likewise a new phase opened. In 
the eighty years between the dictatorship of Sulla and the erection 
of the Ara Pacis Auguste, sculpture, from being an exotic growth, 
was transformed into an expression of the genius of ancient Italy. 


Hellenic forms were gradually adapted 


to Roman subjects and modified ac- 
cordingly. A curious example of the 
fusion of styles in the early part of 
the century is the peperino group in 
the Museo Mussolini, set up according 
to the inscription by the Guild of the 
Flute-players (tibicines) who performed 
at public sacrifices, and who are so 
often represented on triumphal reliefs. 
Owing to their fragmentary condition, 
and the friable nature of the coarse 
material, the actual statues of the flute- 
players are now only rude effigies; but 
there is considerable merit in the 
main composition, which represents 
Orpheus charming the beasts (Fig. 91), 
a subject used here as appropriate to 


the flute-playing brotherhood, and 
93 


FIG. 9I.—ORPHEUS. 
(Museo Mussolini.) 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


also because Orpheus, who had preached the doctrine of resurrection 
and won back Eurydice from the jaws of hell, was eminently in 
place on a sepulchral monument. The local material employed shows 
that the work was done for a 
genuine Roman guild; probably 
by a native artist; but the com- 
position, naive and _ provincial 
though it has become in his 
hands, is Hellenic in ‘conception 
and has something Scopadic in 
the pose of the head of Orpheus. 
The frieze on the monument 
of the baker Marcus Vergilius 
Eurysaces (Fig. 92), which illus- 
trates the various processes of 
bread-making, is possibly  in- 
fluenced by scenes of daily life 
on Hellenic and Hellenistic reliefs, 
but the Romans were to make 
such subjects peculiarly their own: 
VIG. 92.—TOMB OF THE BAKER, porta We have: already rererred to the 
MAGGIORE, kitchen scene on a cista from 
Palestrina, and the kitchen and 
other domestic scenes on the much later Igel monument near Tréves 
illustrate the constant popularity of this class of genre. The com- 
position of the frieze has traits in common with the painted frieze of 
the Esquiline tomb noted at the end of this chapter, and both have 
motives which reappear two centuries later in the column of Trajan, 
where the men carrying baskets of earth for the construction of ram- 
parts or walls resemble the slaves carrying baskets of wheat in the 
tomb of the baker. The name of the baker shows him to have been 
a Romanized Greek. His tomb, which stands immediately outside 
the Porta Maggiore, is in the shape of an oven, and is further 
remarkable architecturally for its Etrusco-Aolic capitals—a variant 
form of the Ionic. The portrait group on a marble slab near by 
was found on the site and is thought to be of Vergilius and of his wife 
Atistia, for whom the tomb was in the first instance put up.! 
Among sepulchral reliefs of the Republican period a stele in the 
British Museum (Cat. III. 2274) deserves a place of honour. It was 


1 Inscriptions: C.J.L., 2nd ed., i., 1203-1205 and vi., 1958; Dessau, 7460. 
From these inscriptions round the tombit appears that Eurysaces was both baker and 
contractor (redemptor). Ashby, “Sep. Eurysaces,” in Top. Dict. For Atistia, C./.L., 
2nd ed., i., 1206 = vi., 1958. 

94 


THE LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC 


found near the walls in one of the tombs that bordered the ancient 
Via Nomentana, and marked the resting-place of a man and his wife 
whom the inscription carved on each side of the stele quaintly 
represents as praising one another’s virtues (C.I.L., vi. 9499). The 
woman's head is a vile restoration, but that of the man is of genuinely 
Republican character, with thin delicate features (cf. Buecheler, ii. 
959, Carm. Ep. Lat.). 

Greek idealism and Roman realism appear in striking juxtaposition 
on the friezes of the altar put up, it is thought, in 45 B.c. by Domitius 
Ahenobarbus in front of the Temple of Neptune. On the principal 
face (Fig. 87) a Roman sacrifice is represented with an attention to 
actuality and detail—the altar, the god, the priest, the attendants, 
the victims,the musicians and the soldiery—which is in sharp contrast 
to the allegorical friezes of the other sides. On these we see the 
nuptial thiasos of Neptune and Amphitrite followed by their court 
of Nereids and creatures of the deep, in evident allusion, after the 
idealizing Greek manner, to the naval victories of Ahenobarbus. 
And the manner in which the procession of sea deities is displayed 
along the surface of the relief is 
also Greek, though even here a 
Roman trait is introduced in the 
attempt to show the chariot of 
Neptune in three-quarter view. 
It is a first step towards such a 
purely Romanized design as the 
“Neptune and Amphitrite’ of 
the Ostian Therme—from the 
second century, A.D.—where the 
god, impelled by some divine 
force, drives his team of hippo- 
camps forward from the depths 
of the composition, while the 
Nereids and their companions 
enframe the central motive in an 
ordered pattern (Calza, Ostia, 
p. 55). 

Closely connected with the sacri- 
ficial frieze on the altar of Aheno- rio. 3.—venus GENETRIX, FROM THE 
barbus is another scene of sacrifice BOR aeee eae 
on a base in the Villa Borghese. 

Here the ceremony is in honour of Apollo and Hercules, who appear 
accompanied by Venus and Victory. The similarity between the 
grouping and distribution of the figures on both altar and basis makes 


95 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


it certain that the two monuments are of the same period; the basis 
has accordingly been referred from its subject to the ludi Czxsaris of 
the year 42 8.c. In common with other works of the time the figures 
betray a marked eclecticism 
which borrows alike from 
Italic-Hellenic and _neo- 
Attic models. The figure 
of Venus (Fig. 93) is also 
significant as being a con- 
temporary reproduction of 
the Venus genitrix made by 
Arcesilaus for the temple 
in Cesar’s Forum. Dis- 
FIG. 94.—CURTIUS SPRINGING INTO THE CHASM. tinctly Roman both as to 
(Relief in Museo Mussolini.) subject and treatment is 
the relief of the Museo 
Mussolini representing Marcus Curtius (Fig. 94) as he springs full 
armed into the chasm. The slab once adorned the balustrade that 
rimmed the Lacus Curtius inthe Forum. Though probably only a late 
copy, it has kept the fire and spirit of the original as well as a romantic 
note; a vivid sense of depth is emphasized by showing horse and 
horseman in three-quarter view from the back as Curtius plunges 
headlong into the void, and the natural rendering of the waving reeds 
at the edge of the Jacus is already in 
the mode of the Ara Pacis. The 
Republican date seems certain from 
the countless reproductions of the 
group on lamps and terra-cottas of 
the period (Brit. Mus., Cat. Lamps., 
Pl. XVIII). Similar in character to 
the Curtius relief is one in Munich 
representing a gladiatorial scene, with 
the groups of two trumpeters and 
two armed figures, one of whom, seen 
from the back as he crouches on the 
ground asking for mercy, stimulates 
1 our sense of depth by the fore- 
FIG. 9§.—RELIEF OF GLADIATORS. shortened pose, besides being drawn 
(Munich.) and modelled with the vigour of 
Mantegna (Fig. 95). 
§ 2. Reliefs with Landscape and Pastoral Subjects—Animals in 
Roman Art.—In another class of reliefs are those mural panels of 
marble which used to be classed indiscriminately as Hellenistic, but in 


THE LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC 


which modern criticism has succeeded in disentangling the Roman 
from the Greek element and finding a chronology for the different 
groups. The earliest examples of the Roman series fall approxi- 
mately in the middle of the 
first century, and chiefly repro- 
duce pastoral and agricultural 
landscapes or scenes from animal 
life. Among the numerous ex- 
amples we may single out for 
their dainty elegance the well- 
known pair at Vienna, that 
come from the Palazzo Grimani 
in Venice, representing the one a 
lioness and her cub (Fig. 96), the 
other an ewe and her lamb. 
The reliefs have, it is true, been 
recently attributed to the time 
of Claudius, but subject and 
composition seem genuinely in 
the spirit of the first century B.c. 
In both groups the animals ap- FIG. 90.—LIONESS AND YOUNG. 
pear within the shadow of a Relief in the Vienna Museum. 
cave, a favourite Hence which (Wickhoff, Roman Art, Heinemann, London.) 
lasted into Augustan art, where 
we meet with it on one of the slabs of the Ara Pacis. Above the 
caves the landscape of the middle distance is treated with a fresh 
and charming touch, especially effective in the rendering of the 
trees and plants. Some light is thrown upon the school that intro- 
duced this style of subject by Varro, who mentions a group he possessed 
of a lioness bound by love-gods, made by the same Arcesilaus of 
Cyrene, the Greek artist who was executing commissions at this 
period for distinguished Romans, among whom was Cesar (above 
p. 87). Nor was Arcesilaus the only Greek who at this time depicted 
animal life, for Pliny has a story of how the Neapolitan Pasiteles, 
while down at the docks making a study of a caged lion, was nearly 
killed by a panther who broke out from a neighbouring cage. 
Animal painting and modelling had attracted artistic effort from 
the earliest times: Altamira, Moustier, Egypt; the magnificent 
zoography of Greek vases, so easy to study in the fascinating pages 
of M. Morin; Greek animal sculpture (cows and horses of the Par- 
thenon, horses of Olympia, Alexander’s lion’s hunt, lions of Cnidos 
and of Cheronea; in Rome itself, the bull from A®gina (>) in the 
Forum Boarium; the wonderful bronze dog licking her wounds in 
VOL. I. 97 H 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


the cella of Juno in the Capitoline temple, where it perished in the 
fire of A.D. 69); all these show the greatness of the Greeks as 
animaliers. None the less, 
what the Romans produced 
in this line ranks with the 
best. The lupa Capitolina 

is an early example: a 

second wolf, the famous 

bronze put up by the 

Ogulnii in 296 B.c., is 

another. This group, 
_ showing the animal as she 

looks back protectingly at 

her nurslings, is preserved 

in many copies and imita- 

tions, one of which, of 
Imperial date, at Avenches in Switzerland, is reproduced here 
(Fig. 97). We also hear of a bronze bull set up in the Porticus 
Minucia, while the horses of equestrian statues and chariot groups 
are famous from the time of the Republic onwards. At a later 
date the hunting scenes of Pompeian painting, the fish-ponds of 
the mosaics, the birds, both sculptured and painted, of sepulchral 
art: the sow of Lanuvium, the goats and wild beasts of Hadrianic 
mosaics; the sacrificial animals of countless reliefs; the dying bulls 
on the Trajanic column and on Mith- 
raic altar-pieces, the elephants of 
Imperial and Dionysiac quadrige, 
show how sustained was Roman effort 
in the rendering of animal life. 

A new interest_in country folk is 
expressed in the relief at Munich 
of a peasant, who, bent under the 
double burden of a knapsack on’ his 
left shoulder and of a basket in his 
right hand, is driving his cow to mar- 
ket. In this class of picture relief 
there is little of the modern feeling 
for landscape for its own sake; the 
landscape is treated as setting for a so, 98—scene aT TOMB. sTUCCO. 
rural ritual, the familiar features of (@funich.) 
which are sacred groves enclosing 
votive columns tied with sashes, small shrines and chapels, tiny 
figures of Pan or of Priapus, torches and thyrsi, the mystic chest 

9 


FIG. 97.—-THE WOLF OF AVENCHES. 


THE LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC 


and winnowing fan, and the sacred tree from whose branches 


are suspended votive offerings. 


In the left foreground of the 


Munich relief we have an altar with vase, thyrsus and torch; above 


is a shrine of Priapus, and in the 
middle distance a sacred enclo- 
sure with a tall betyl in the 
centre supporting the Dionysiac 
emblems. To the right is a 
gate surmounted by the sacred 
pine-cone, through which a tree 
pushes its sturdy branches. In 
the relief with the lioness we find 
the trailing wreath across the 
altar adorned with the mask and 
other Dionysiac emblems, and 
the thyrsus and torch propped 
up against it. Again, in a little 
known stucco relief of the Mu- 
nich Antiquarium (Fig. 98) a 
young man, wearing the large 
soft hat of a traveller, halts to 
offer a wreath in front of a tem- 


FIG. 99.—POLYPHEMUS PIPING. 
(Villa Albani.) 


ple-shaped grave on a high podium overshadowed by a tree, while 
on the right of the broad flight of steps stands the familiar altar. 


FIG. 100.—MARBLE WELL HEAD. 
(Lateran Museum.) 


A pastoral vein pervades the Albani 
relief (Fig. 99) of Polyphemus 
seated piping under a tree as Eros 
whispers into his ear. ‘These 
reliefs possibly betray a fashion- 
able rather than a genuine love of 
the country and its pursuits; it 1s 
the country as seen by a people 
who affect rather than feel distaste 
of town life. They indicate the 
attempted return to nature of a 
tired : ‘society as yet untouched by | 
new forces. The wreath and _ 
garland motives employed in this 
period in architectural decoration 
reappear on smaller monuments 
as on the puteal Libonis, the 
decoratedSwell-head put up in the 
Forum in 54 s.c. by Scribonius 


99 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


Libo, which is known from coins and from a copy in the Lateran 
(Fig. 100). 

§ 3. Decorative Sculpture: Vases and Fountains.—Mythological 
figures and groups, imitated from later archaic and fifth-century 
Greek work, formed at this time the favourite decoration of vases 
and fountains. The Medici vase at Florence (Fig. 101), with its 
still enigmatic subject (possibly Cassandra as suppliant), the Borghese 
vase in the Louvre (Fig.102), with its Dionysiac processions, and the 


FIG. IOI1.—THE MEDICI VASE. (Florence.) FIG. 102.—THE BORGHESE VASE. (Louvre.) 


beautiful vase in the Chigi collection in Rome, with scenes from the 
myth of Psyche (R. R. III, 219, 1) show this Hellenizing tendency. 
That the artists were Greeks seems certain from the signatures that 
occur on other vases of the same character—the vase in Naples 
representing the childhood of Dionysus, signed Salpion; the one 
in the Louvre with a procession of gods and Bacchic figures signed 
Sosibios ; and the huge rhyton in the Conservatori, found on the 
site of the Villa of Macenas, decorated with Bacchantes copied 
from Attic originals of the fifth century s.c., which is signed by the 
Athenian Pontios. 

Figures in the round also were put to decorative uses in this 
period, e.g. the charming group in the Louvre of three girls linked 
together after the fashion of the Graces, to form the support of a 
fountain basin (Fig. 103). This may be a copy of the fountain 
group known as the Appiades, or Appian nymphs, made for the 

100 


THE LAST: CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC 


Forum of Cesar by Stephanos, the pupil of Pasiteles, known also 
for his copies of ancient Greek works (above, p. 97). The group 
of a centaur carrying off a Nereid in the Hall of the Animals of the 
Vatican (H.-A. 179) evidently belongs to the same school and very 
likely reproduces another of the fountains which from this time 
onwards were used to decorate villas and open places. The group 
may well be brought 
into connection with the 
centauri nymphas gerentes 
of Arcesilaus, the sculp- 
tor credited with execut- 
ing the statue of Venus 
Genitrix for the God- 
dess's temple in the 
Forum of Cesar. The 
motive of the Rape, the 
joyous movement of the 
Centaur, tempered by a 
certain grave dignity, 
are derived from Hel- , 
lenistic models; but the FIG. 103.—FOUNTAIN GRouP. (Gusman.) 
simulated fright of the oavre:} 

Nereid and the mischie- 

vous gesture of the little Eros introduce into the composition the 
raciness of Latin humour. 

§ 4. Copies and Adaptations from Earlier Works.—As a rule, 
however, little originality can be claimed for the treatment_of the 
human figure in this period.~ It is the era of the adapters and the 
copyists, who now filled the Roman world with those copies es of 
earlier works which still represent four-fifths of the statues in most 
of our collections of antiques. The fashion for copies is Hellenistic 
and probably older. It was adopted by Rome in emulation of the 
courts of the Diadochi, who, like the Attalids of Pergamon, en- 


couraged the copying of beautiful or famous works, when originals 
could not be obtained. In the first century x.c. the chief of this 
school of Greek copyists working for Roman patrons was Pasiteles, 
a native of Magna Grecia who became a Roman citizen. He was 
an interesting personality and a good deal more than a mere copyist. 
Besides the studies of animal life already referred to, he made 
an ivory statue of Jupiter for the temple which Metellus Mace- 
donicus about seventy years before had enclosed within the Porticus 
Octavia: on the side nearest the Campus Martius. He was also an 
excellent modeller and metal chaser, instrumental probably in intro- 


‘4 101 5 
‘ i r t Y & 417 . - : q 
7 Ku a Mk ; \x ae OL RN’ Ae A . . tN 8 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


FIG. 104.—-STATUE BY STEPHA- 


works 
antiquity in five volumes. 


ducing into Rome 
the Hellenistic 
metal work which in 
the period of Augus- 
tus took on a dis- 
tinctive Roman 
character. It illus- 
trates the curiosity 
of the times as to 
ancient art, that 
Pasiteles, who was 
apparently as ver- 
satile a genius as 
an Italian of the 
Renascence, wrote 
a history of the 


f FIG. I105.—GROUP BY MENELAOS, 
Nos. (Villa Albani.) most amous (Terme.) 


of art of 


Nothing directly connected with his 


name has survived; though a famous statue, now in the Villa Albani, — 


FIG. 106—PAN. (British Museum.) 


bears the signature of Stephanos, who 
acknowledges himself his pupil. This 
work, which represents a young 
athlete in repose (Fig. 104), is doubt- 
less copied from a Greek original of 
the early fifth century; but it is a 
proof of the importance that Romans 
attached to copies at this period that 
it should be thus circumstantially 
signed by the artist, who gives not 
only his name but that of his master. 
Though the study of copies belongs 
to the history of Greek and not 
Roman art, the athlete of Stephanos 
is mentioned here for the light it 
throws on the taste of the times and 
for its influence on contemporary 
sculpture. Not only do we find 
replicas of it, but it occurs in more 
or less tasteful groupings with other 
figures; with a woman, for instance, 
to form the subject of an “Orestes 


A Electra” at Naples, or with 


THE LAST CENTURY OF THE 


FIG. 107.— BRONZE CAMILLUS. 
(Conservatori.) 


another 
male fig- 
Wore. - C10 
form the 
so-called 
*“Orestes 
and Pyla- 
des,” now 
int hoe 
Louvre. 
The. Jl. 
defonso 
group” in 
Madrid 
represents 
a similar 
combina- 
tion of two 
later types. 


The Pasitelean School lasted into the 


Julio-Claudian period, when a 


group of a 


woman and a boy, also known as “Orestes 
and Electra” (Fig. 105), is signed by one 
Menelaos, who in turn calls himself the 
pupil of Stephanos as Stephanos had of 


Pasiteles. 


REPUBLIC 


FIG. 108.—ROMAN WITH ANCES- 
TRAL PORTRAITS. 


(Mus. Barberini.) 


But the full name of Menelaos was Marcus Cossutius 


Menelaos, so that, like the M. Cossutius Cerdo M(arci) |(ibertus) 
who signs the two copies of a Polycleitan Pan in the British 
Museum (Fig. 106), he was a freedman of a M. Cossutius, whom 


we may possibly regard as 
a descendant of the archi- 
tect of the Olympieion at 
Athens. The Pan of Mar- 
cus Cossutius Cerdo, it 
may be noted, was found 
in a Roman villa near 
Lanuvium. 

Side by side with copies 
and adaptations we occa- 
sionally find a genuine 
Roman subject, such as the 
charming statue of a Ca- 
millus in the Palazzo dei 


FIG. 109.—SO-CALLED CATO AND PORTIA. 
(Vatican.) 


103 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


Conservatori (Fig. 107). The casting of the metal is excellent and 
the delicate stripes of a reddish bronze that reach from the shoulders 
to the hem of the garment 
reproduce the purple 
stripes of the actual dress. 
This exquisite work has 
not received the attention 
it deserves; yet a new 
vitality, flowing from the 
artist’s interest in a fresh 
subject, informs both 
figure and drapery, and 
it may very well be a 
creation of the last cen- 
FIG. 110.—PORTRAIT OF POMPEY. tury of the Republic. 
NS Sa ree § 5. Portraiture of the 
First Century. — Recent 
research has shown that Etruscan influences were powerful in the 
formation of Roman portraiture (see above, p. 70), but this should 
not blind us to the importance of the Greek element which makes 
itself strongly felt in the first century and blends very happily with 
the Etrusco-Roman. It is generally 
accepted that portraiture in Rome 
arose in connection with the wax. 
images moulded over the face of the 
dead which were carried in the 
funeral procession and afterwards 
deposited in the entrance hall of 
the house. Copies in stone of these 
wax images, neatly arranged in their 
armaria or cabinets, adorn a tomb 
of Republican date now visible at 
the corner of the Villa Campanari. 
At times a long series of such 
effigies may be seen stiffly aligned 
within one frame; at others the 
little bust of a child placed between 
the portraits of its parents introduces 
FIG, I1I.—COLOSSAL HEAD OF CESAR. g  gofter note. These images, 
ele however, when translated into stone 
were apt to lose their Roman 
severity and to be modified by the naturalism of contemporary Greek 
sculpture. The two ancestral images which the dignified Roman 


104 


THE LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC 


carries in the Barberini group (Fig. 108) are practically busts in 
the Hellenistic manner. On tombs we sometimes see the recum- 
bent effigy of a man holding the imago of his wife, or vice versa of 
a wife holding that of her husband, but in these later examples 
again the imago is a bust, shaped according to the fashion of the 
period. On the other hand, the Greek naturalism that tempers the 
stiff form of the well-known group in the Vatican (Fig. 109), long 
misnamed “Cato and Portia,” is what might be expected, since from 
the copy of the lost inscription on the base of the bust it appears that 
the two persons portrayed were Greek freedmen (M. Gratidius 
Libanus, with his wife and freedwoman, Gratidia M. L. Carite). 
Among portraits in marble that can be assigned to the closing 
years of the Republic, many of which are now believed to be in 
fact Augustan, the first in artistic merit is probably the magnificent 
togate statue of a Roman in the act of sacrifice, in the Sala della 
Biga of the Vatican (Hekler, 129c); its conception anticipates the 
Augustus of the Via Labicana; the noble yet realistic treatment of 
the drapery recalls that of a fine statue of Augustus in the Louvre. 
Another togate statue, no less impressive, is in the British Museum 
(Cat. No. 1943). These two statues remain, and are likely to 
remain, anonymous, but with two other portraits of the same period 
we are more fortunate: the Cicero, identified from the inscribed 
replica at Apsley House, a curiously exact transcript of our literary 
conceptions of the great orator; and the head of Pompey in the 
Ny Carlsberg Collection (Fig. 110) at Copenhagen, identified 
beyond question with the help of his coins. The fussy con- 
scientiousness of the man, the kindly, anxious face with its puzzled 
eyes, are all treated with Hellenistic naturalism; as are the loose 
locks of untidy hair—the very locks by which the head was held up 
to Cesar after Pharsalia. It is inexplicable that the portraiture of 
Cesar should be as yet so little known. We gather from the coins 
that he was haggard and thin, and wore what hair he had in the 
strictest fashion of the Republic; but of portraits in the round 
there is a curious dearth. The colossal head at Naples, evidently of 
a Republican personage, must be Cesar, since it is on a scale only 
allowed to the divi, but it was executed at a later period, and in 
spite of a certain architectural grandeur it remains cold and un- 
inspired (Fig. 111). The statue as /mperator in the Palazzo dei 
Conservatori is again only a copy of Trajanic date; it seems genuine 
enough, but is singularly unimpressive; the famous head in the 
British Museum must be either a forgery or a late historic portrait 
—probably the former, since it combines hair of the first century 
with eyes of the late second, is made of Luna marble and comes 


105 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


from Alexandria—a suspicious provenance in any case, and doubly 
so for a work executed in Italian marble. The fine head of green 
basalt in Berlin cannot be accepted as a Cesar; the head in the 
Stroganoff Collection is a splendid portrait of the period, but far 
too old for the Dictator, who was only fifty-six at the time of his 
murder (Figs. 112 and 113); the curious Romano-Egyptian basalt 
portrait in the Museo Barracco, with its look of austerity and 
suffering (Roman Sculpture, Plate I), has many of the characteristics 
commonly associated with the name of Cesar, but the head is 


FIGS. 112 AND I13.—ROMAN PORTRAIT (REPUBLICAN). 
(Formerly in Stroganoff collection.) 


more probably that of an Egyptian priest of about the same period. 
The head, which, in spite of its restored nose and chin, has the 
greatest claim to be regarded as a portrait of Cesar, is that in the 
Campo Santo at Pisa. Four magnificent Republican portraits of 
severe style are in the newly reorganised museum at Mantua. One 
of the few heroized portraits of the Republican period, though it 
cannot be associated with any famous historical name, is the imposing 
statue of a Roman found in Delos and now in the Museum at 
Athens; it probably represents some Roman Governor or official 
portrayed as a Hermes, for which a Polycleitan type was borrowed 
(Hekler, 127, 5). 

The native art of terra-cotta is responsible for interesting por- 
traiture—long insufficiently studied—in a style intermediate between 
the wax imago and the portrait intended as a work of art. The 
rapid and sketchy execution and the addition of colour:impart to 
these terra-cotta heads a vividness and a lifelike quality frequently 


106 


THE LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC 


absent in the more elaborate techniques. A fine example is the 
Boston head reproduced in Fig. 114. The terra-cotta heads, 
moreover, are of special impor- 
tance as representing a distinctly 
Etruscan’ style, of which we have | 
seen earlier examples in the | | 
bronze head, wrongly called “Bru- | | 
tus,’ and kindred works. Later 
than the so-called Brutus, and 
clearly Roman in character, is the 
remarkable bust in Naples of the 
actor Norbanus Sorix (Hekler, 
130), who flourished in the time 
of Sulla. Being approximately 
dated, it is among the most pre- 
cious examples of pre-Imperial 
portraiture and Hekler justly 
praises it for its extraordinary 

force and clarity of expression. 
Portraits on Republican coins 
have already been alluded to in 
the case of Pompey and Flamini- 
nus; the head of Sulla, not as yet 
identified with any portrait in the round, is an interesting character 
study, but suggests the sensuous 
rather than the statesmanlike side of 
his character; Lepidus looks the 
nonentity he was in history; Antony, 
no portrait of whom exists in the 
round, is the self-satisfied coxcomb 
without a hint of his more serious 
side. But it is perhaps unfair to 
judge Antony and Lepidus from their 
coin portraits, when we consider the 
gulf that separates the ineffective 
heads of the young Octavius on the 
coins from such a masterpiece as the 
celebrated bust from Ostia in the 
Vatican (Fig. 115), which represents 
the “wise boy at the age of fifteen 
to eighteen, intelligent and well bred, 
FIG. 115.—PORTRAIT oF octavius. | With an expression early matured by 
(Vatican.) steadfast will and asevere self-mastery 


107 


re Ns a DRE SG OAT aR 55. 
ey 3 4 AS a 


FIG. II14.—TERRA-COTTA HEAD, 
(Boston.) 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


which inexorably thrusts back all intimate emotion” (Hekler). 
This head, with its Roman accuracy and Greek psychology, inaugu- 
rates the Augustan era, during which was effected the fusion of the 
various conflicting styles, Hellenic, Roman and Etruscan. 

§ 6. Painting.—In this chapter we shall limit ourselves to recalling 
a few of the lost masterpieces known from literary sources. Scene 
painting came into being in the first century. It was first used 
apparently at the games of C. Claudius Appius Pulcher in 99 B.c. 
(see p. 63), and excited great admiration because of its naturalistic 
quality, the very crows being deceived by the painted roof tiles and 
flying down to settle on them. We may refer to approximately the 
same date a large picture of uncertain purpose which covered the 
whole of the balconies (mzniana) by the old shops in the Forum. 
It was the work of one Serapion, from his name doubtless a native 
of Alexandria. 

All the different classes of painting discussed in Chapter IV 
continued to flourish. After the siege of Nola in 88 B.c. a portrait 
of Sulla was painted in which the great Dictator, wearing the 
obsidional crown of grass, was shown against the ramparts of the 
fallen city. In 87 3s.c., Marius on his victorious return to Rome 
set up in the holy grove of the local nymph Marica a picture of 
his strange adventures in Minturne (Plut. Mar., 37-39). The 
triumphs celebrated by a succession of great generals continued to 
create a demand for pictures. In that of Pompey, according to 
Appian, there figured portraits of the “absent vanquished,” of 
Tigranes, and of Mithridates fighting and fleeing. Of the Mithridatic 
war especially a whole string of episodes was shown: battles and 
sieges, the king’s flight by night culminating in his death—a subject 
that anticipated the “Death of Decebalus” on the column of 
Trajan; and thet the tale of the enemy’s sufferings might be complete 
there appeared pictures of the sons and daughters of Mithridates 
whose death had preceded his. 

The triumph of Cesar in 46 B.c. probably surpassed every other 
in grandeur. In it the whole drama of the civil wars was exhibited 
pictorially. Out of respect for his rival’s memory, or fearing to 
arouse an exhibition of popular feeling, Casar omitted any picture 
of Pompey from the pageant. Otherwise the dramatis persone 
were all there: Scipio throwing himself into the sea, after receiving 
the self-inflicted mortal wound; Petreius and Juba dying by one 
another’s hand at a banquet; and.Cato tearing off his bandages. 
As a relief to so much tragedy, the villains of the piece were also 
brought in,. in this’ instance the cowards Achillas and Pothinus, 
the picture of whose death as traitors was greeted with loud cheers; 


THE LAST CENTURY OF THE REPUBLIC 


finally, a comic touch was introduced into the picture by showing 
the flight of Pharnaces, a melancholy exhibition that was received 
with bursts of laughter. Oy 

Varro (born 116 8.c.) mentions that when he was a young man 
there lived in Rome an unmarried lady of Cyzicus called Jaia, who was 
a portrait painter. She seems to have worked on ivory, which 
suggests miniature, and also to have painted a portrait of herself with 
the help of a mirror. Of religious art, strictly speaking, we again hear 
little, though one Habron is said to have painted images of the gods. 
Moreover, the picture of the celebrated courtesan Flora, which it 
is said one of the Metelli put up in the time of Pompey the Great 
in the temple of the Castores, can only have been a picture of Helen 
for which Flora sat as model, since Helen would be an appropriate 
subject in a temple dedicated to her brothers. 


[Brizio. 
FIG. 116.— BUILDING OF ALBA LONGA, TOMB PAINTING. 
(Terme. ) 


From a columbarium tomb on the Esquiline comes a frieze repre- 
senting a series of episodes from the legendary history of Rome: the 
building of Lavinium; the battle between Latins and Rutuli; the 
building of Alba Longa (Fig. 116); the story of Rhea Sylvia and 
the exposure of the Twins. The pictures, neglected and forgotten, 
are full of interest not only for their subjects but for the style and 
design, which certainly reproduce some extensive and important 
mural composition. Among the finest are the building of the walls 
of Alba in presence of the city’s goddess, and the founding of 
Rome with the idyllic scene of the shepherds and their flocks, and 
the two men carrying the twins in a cradle while the river god with 
his oar looks on and Rhea is seen pensively seated in the distance. 
The atmosphere is truly Roman; the long frieze has in it elements 
which had slowly developed out of themes long dear to Roman 
artists. The picture of building operations in this series was long 


109 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


ago shown to have afhnities with triumphal painting and may almost 
be classed among the prototypes of such scenes in the column of 
Trajan. 

Painting and mosaic flourished side by side. We have already 
referred to the examples of mosaic possibly from the age of Sulla 
in the temple of Fortune at Praneste. Moreover, it was in the 
famous Colonia Sullana at Pompeii, in the city of tufa, that was 
developed the so-called architectural style of Pompeian painting, 
of which there are examples in Rome also. For the sake of com- 
pleteness and convenience, however, we will discuss the different 
styles together in Chapter XI. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 
Anti, C., “Il presunto Altare di Domizio Ahenobarbo, 1924 (Atti di R- Inst. 


Veneto. [Anonymous], Les Collectioneurs de l’ancien Rome (Notes d'un amateur), 
1877. Brizio, E., Pitture e Sepolcri Scoperti sull’ Esquilino, 1876. Esdaile, K.E., J.R.S., 
I., 1911, p. 206 ff. (for Barberini group). van Essen, C. C., “Relief Héllenistique 
a scéne d’offrande”’ in Bull. van de Vereeniging tot Bevordering der Kennis van de 
antike Beschaving. Jahn, O., “I Bassirilievi e le Iscrizioni del Monumento di 
Marco Vergilio Eurisace’’ (Annali, x., 1838, pp. 231 f.; Monumenti, ii., pl. 58). 
Lechat, H., “Boéthos” (Revue des Etudes Anciennes, xii., 1910, pp. 361 f. Mahdia 
bronze). Lehmann-Hartleben, K., Die Traiansaiile, 1925, p. 44 (friezes of Esquiline 
Tomb and of Tomb of Eurysaces). Levi, Alda, Boll. d’Arte, 1925, p. 230 
(Republican portraits at Mantua). Merlin, A., et Poinssot, L., “Bronzes Trouvés 
en Mer prés de Mahdia” (Mon. Piot, xvii., 1909, pp. 29 f.). Morin, Jean, Le 
Dessin des Animaux en Grece d’ apres les Vases Peintes Paris, 1911. Reinach, R.P.G.R., 
pp. 176, 177. Rostowzew, Social and Economic Hist. of the R.E., 1925, p. 32, and 
Pl. IV. (Tomb of Eurysaces.) Sieveking, J., Miinchener Jahrbuch, xil., p. 129 
(Grimani reliefs). Urlichs, L., Griechische Statuen in Republikanischem Rom., 1880 
(cf. Dragendorff, H., in Bonner Jahrb., 103, p. 92). Weickert, C., “Gladiatoren 
relief der Miinchner Glyptotek”’ (Miinch. Jahrb. N.F. 11);—Ein romisches Relief 
aus der Zeit Cesars, (Festschrift Arndt). 


110 


[Photo, K. Martin. 


FIG. II17..—BEARDED HEAD IN TERRA-COTTA FROM NEMI. 
(Cambridge: Fitzwilliam Mus.) 


CHAPTER VII 
LATIN TERRA-COTTAS 


Statues, statuettes, ornamental tile ends and other facings of 
terra-cotta remained so constant a feature of ancient Italic temples 
that they afford a continuous picture of the development of Italic 
art from the earliest times to the close of the Republic and even later. 
The Apollo from Veii and the sarcophagi from Cervetri have already 
shown us that this ancient fictile art was largely influenced by Greek 
models; but both Latins and Etruscans so thoroughly assimilated 
this foreign element that works in terra-cotta, whether in the round 
or in relief, came to be looked upon as essentially Italic products. 
By the second century, indeed, the old patriot Cato, who was for ever 
attributing the degeneracy of his time to the rage for Greek fashions, 
pointed to these terra-cottas as examples of the old Latin simplicity 
uncorrupted as yet by the hateful inventions of Syracuse, Athens or 
Corinth. 

$1. The Architectural Uses of Terra-cotta——The primitive 
custom of protecting wood, sun-dried bricks and rough tufaceous 
stone by means of terra-cotta antefixes was alike common to the 
Italic and the Hellenic peoples. These antefixes were modelled 
in the shape of human heads, Medusa masks, and even of whole 
figures and groups. The protective principle was thus a double 
one, for the figures themselves had an apotropaic function that 
originated in the desire of primitive man to ward off evil spirits from 
his places of worship. To get a clear idea of how these terra-cotta 


11 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


facings were used in Latium it is necessary to understand their place ° 

on a temple. In the early Latin temple the most significant part 
architecturally is the pedi- _ 
ment, which is in the form — 
of a projecting balcony 
resting on the prolongation 
of the side beams or 
mutuli, as on _ corbels. 
This projecting pediment 
not being supported by 
columns was not sufh- 

~ ciently substantial to bear 
the weight of groups of 


FIG. 118.—VOTIVE MODEL OF ETRUSCAN PEDIMENT. figures, as in the later 
(Villa Giulia.) . 


stone temples; hence it 
remained empty save for 
the tile ends that decorated its lower edge and for the terra- 
cotta plaques in relief that were affixed to the mutuli and to the colu- 
men or central beam of the saddle roof. The arrangement is clear 
from the instructive little votive model found at Nemi (Fig. 118), 
which, though of a comparatively late date, substantially reproduces 
the archaic arrangement. . 
The end of the central 
supporting beam is faced 
with a_ terra-cotta slab 
representing in this in- 
stance the Capitoline 
Triad, while above the 
lower horizontal cornice 
runs a row of tile ends of 
Gorgoneion type. A simi- 
lar model may be seen in 
the Museum of Florence, 
and at the British Museum 
the reconstruction of part 
of the cornice of the FIG. II9.—TEMPLE OF ALATRI. RECONSTRUCTION AT 
archaic temple on_ the ee ae 

Acropolis of Lanuvium 

shows a decorated cornice with a hanging curtain of richly orna- 
mented tiles. Finally, the model of a small temple discovered at 
Alatri (Fig. 119), now set up in the garden of the Villa Giulia, though 
possibly not accurate in every detail, shows how effective are brilliantly 
coloured terra-cottas in the clear Italian atmosphere. 


LATIN TERRA- 


COTTAS 


§ 2. Terra-cottas from Rome, Satricum, Preneste and Velitre.— 
A fragment of acroterion decorated with a palmette pattern from the 


temple of Jupiter Capitolinus was 
found some years ago, but is now 
mislaid (Fig. 120). In the collection 
of terra-cottas of the Palazzo dei 
Conservatori are two archaic pieces of 
great beauty: the first is a female head 
of Ionic-Etruscan type (Fig. 121) found 
on the site of the Ara Cceli; since it is 
of early fifth-century date it had prob- 
ably drifted with other debris from the 
temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. The 
second is a mask of Silenus from a 
sanctuary (not as yet identified), on the 
site of S. Antonio Abbate al Cispio on 
the Esquiline. But it is in the reor- 
ganized museum of the Villa Giulia, 
among the terra-cottas from the temples 
in the immediate neighbourhood of 


(Bull. Com. 1806.) 


FIG. I120.—-FRAGMENT OF TILE-END 
FROM TEMPLE OF JUPITER. 


Rome, that we can best study the early fictile art of Italy. The 
site of the celebrated temple of Mater Matuta at Satricum, modern 
Conca, has yielded as many as five groups of archaic terra-cottas 


FIG, I21.—TERRA-COTTA HEAD. 


(Conservatori.) 


VOL. I. Ls 


FIG. 122.—HORNED GODDESS FROM CONCA 
(Villa Giulia.) 
I 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


which apparently belong to successive restorations of the temple. The 
earliest phase is represented by fragments of a frieze of horsemen 
~ modelled with great dash and spirit. Among the antefixes are heads 
of Ionian type; bearded Gorgoneia 
with protruding tongues to emphasize 
their apotropaic character; female 
heads wearing a skin with bovine 
horns which suggest a connection 
with the goat-hooded Juno Lanuvinia 
(Fig. 122), and figures of snake- 
bodied Typhons alternating with 
Harpies. The Harpies hold up their 
feet with soles outward, a gesture 
which, like that of the open palm, is 
apotropaic and signifies aversion. 
Finally, we have the delightful groups 
reproducing the familiar subject of 
the amorous encounter of a Satyr 
with a Menad; the rapid movement, 
the crescendo of animation that runs 
FIG. 123.—SATYR AND MENAD. through the groups, the droll lu- 
(Villa Giulia.) bricity of the Satyr’s face, suggest 
the various phases of a Satyric dance 
(Fig. 123). The groups are treated with great freedom but with 
a humour that disarms criticism. The Satyr-Mznad theme exists 
in several versions and was so popular that it was constantly copied 
and readapted. An interesting variant in the British Museum from 
——— the archaic temple on the 
Fr Lanuvian acropolis, shows 
the Dionysiac panther run- 
ning beside the couple who 
have halted, while the 
Silenus peers into the dis- 
tance, shading his eyes with 
his right hand. The Ionian 
origin of these groups 
seems apparent. It is often 
found on vases and gems 
FIG. 124.—SATYR AND NYMPH. and in a long series of small 
(Naples.) Etrusco-Ionian bronzes. 
With the help of these 
bronzes indeed we may reconstruct almost every phase of the 
pantomime from the first meeting of the Satyr and the reluctant 
nymph (Fig. 124) to the last tableau in which he bears her away in 
114 


LATIN TERRA-COTTAS 


triumph amid the applause, we may be sure, 
of the spectators. The first, a little bronze 
of exquisite finish, is in Naples; the second 
is in New York (Richter, Cat. Bronzes). 

A number of fragments also from Conca 
apparently belonged either to a frieze or to 
a columen and mutuli: among them are two 
of singular excellence, the head of a horse 
and that of a warrior whose eyes are closed 
in death (Fig. 125). It is significant of the 
dependence of Latin artists upon Ionian 
models that the style of these fragments is 
akin to the sculptures of the frieze of the 
Sicyonian treasury at Delphi, while certain 
details recall the sculpture of A.gina (Fig. 126). 
Long processions of chariots, war- 
riors and priestly personages were 
another favourite subject of fictile 
decoration in the archaic period. 
The prototypes were again no 
doubt Ionian, but they were lati- 
nized by the addition of local traits 
such as the augur with his curved 
lituus, etc. A fine example of a 
processional pageant on a terra- 
cotta frieze from the temple of 
Palestrina may be seen in the 
Villa Giulia (Fig. 126); and the 
subject occurs on many fragments 
of the old Borgia collection from 
Velletri, now in Naples. In the 
Palace of the Conservatori the 


FIG. I25.—DEAD WARRIOR. 
TERRA-COTTA FROM CONCA. 


(Villa Giulia.) 


FIG. 126.—HEAD OF WARRIOR. TERRA- 


COTTA FROM CONCA. 
(Villa Giulia.) 


FIG. 127.—PROCESSION. PAINTED TERRA-COTTA PLAQUE FROM PALESTRINA. 
(Villa Giulia.) 


115 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


same subject appears in a marble relief (Fig. given as head-piece to 


Chapter II, Fig. 9). 


§ 3. Falerii Veteres.—No less important than that of Conca is the 


FIG. 128.—GROUP FROM TERRA-COTTA ACROTERION. 


(Villa Giulia.) 


great series of terra-cottas 
from the various temples 
at Falerii Veteres (Civita 
Castellana). A number 
of fragments found in the 
Contrada Sassi Caduti, 
to the North-west of the 
town, include the archaic 
group from the central 
acroterion of a_ temple 
showing two warriors en- 
gaged in_ hand-to-hand 
combat (Fig. 128); the 
details of dress and armour 
are brilliantly coloured; 
the admirable clarity of 
the composition is due to 


both figures being completely visible to the spectator, without any 


overlapping. 

The Faliscan temples also provide 
us with first-rate terra-cottas of third- 
century date. From the same find at 
the Sassi Caduti and doubtless from 
a late restoration of the same temple 
come a long series of figures—includ- 
ing a torso of Mercury—evidently 
imitated from Greek fourth-century 
types, but themselves as late perhaps 
as the years 300-250. Curiously 
enough the art of fifth-century 
Greece has left few or no traces on 
our terra-cottas. The reason is difh- 
cult to gauge; at this period the 
Greek trade routes were perhaps 
largely diverted eastward to Asia 
Minor, so that even the Hellenic 
currents from Magna Grecia flowed 


FIG. I29.—TORSO OF APOLLO. TERRA- 
COTTA FROM FALERII, 


(Villa Giulia.) 


more slowly. From a small temple within the town of Falerii 

supposed to have been dedicated to Apollo (Contrado lo Scasato) we 

have traces of an archaic series, though the greater part of the terra- 
116 


LATIN TERRA-COTTAS 


cottas are from a restoration of fourth-century date or later. 
Among fragments from the pediment are a torso with bent head 
and brushed-back hair that recalls Greek athlete types of the early 


fourth century; another torso, 
probably of Apollo (Fig. 129), 
with the exalted expression and 
energetic lines of the School of 
Scopas, and hair which rises 
above the forehead in leoniae 
tufts, as in the portraits of 
Alexander; and a female head 
with pointed diadem (Fig. 130), 
also of distinct fourth-century 
Greek character. From an 
antefix comes the upper part 
of a small female figure with a 
kerchief round her head (Fig. 
131) and the same broad bands 
down the front of her tunic 
that we note on the central 
figure of the pedimental group 
in the Museo dei Conservatori 


(Fig. 136). It has further been 


FIG. 130.—TERRA-COTTA HEAD FROM FALERIL. 
(Villa Giulia.) 


conjectured that certain fragments of horses belonged to chariots 


FIG. I3I.—TERRA-COTTA FROM 
FALERII, 


(Villa Giulia.) 


that adorned the angles of the pedi- 
ments. 

From a larger temple of second- 
century date in the same contrada 
come fine architectural fragments 
sufficient for a restoration of the 
building, which probably had a tri- 
partite cella and the characteristic 
high pediment. Among the antefixes 
of this later temple are figures of four- 
legged Harpies and of a winged 
male torch-bearer—imitated from 
older types—used here alternately, 
the first as averters of evil, the 
second to preserve a perpetual light 
(lux perpetua) round the sacred 
building. Pre-eminent among the 
later Faliscan terra-cottas is a 
ite statue (Fig. 132)—unfor- 

I] 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 
tunately headless—from the temple in the Contrada Celle, said to 


be that of Juno Quiritis. 


FIG. 132.—COLOURED TERRA- 
COTTA FROM FALERIL. 


(Villa Giulia.) 


The statue therefore very possibly repre- 
sented Juno in the semblance of a Greek 
Hera. The pose and arrangement of the 
drapery is purely Praxitelean. The lines 
of the marble model have lost none of 
their grace or their strength in this terra- 
cotta version. The coloured design of 
the draperies with their elegant borders of 
palmettes on himation and chiton adds to 
our knowledge of the colouring of ancient 
statues in the fourth century, as do the 
Acropolis maidens for the sixth. Finally, 
in the Contrada Vignale, North-east of 
Falerii, are remains of a smaller and also of 
a larger temple, in both of which we can 
distinguish two series of terra-cottas—the 
archaic and that of fourth to third century 
date. 

§ 4. Veii; Care; Signia; Alatri; 
Lanuvium ; and Rome.—Besides the group 
to which the famous A>vollo belonged, Veii 
yielded magnificent fizured ornaments, 
including a number of antefixes. The 


head of Medusa with the marvellous pattern of snakes en- 
framing the face and the tragic rictus of the mouth, through 
which, as Giglioli points out, the sky could be seen, is one of the 


most impressive pieces. 
At Cere were found 
numerous terra-cottas, now 
in America. The favissz 
of the temple at Signia 
(Segni) yielded others; 
the pieces from the temple 
at Alatri may be studied 
in the Museum of Villa 
Giulia and on the restored 
model; the antefixes and 
other revetments from 
Lanuvium at the British 
Museum and at the Louvre 


FIG. 133.—TERRA-COTTA TILE-END FROM LANUVIUM. (Fig. 13 3 ), are generally 


(Louvre. ) 


supposed to come from 


118 


LATIN TERRA-COTTAS 


the famous temple of Juno, but it has recently been suggested that the 
temple was dedicated to the Capitoline triad, and that the temple of 


Juno is to be looked for in the plain. 
That the archaic temples of Rome 
were decorated in a similar style is 
obvious from the few surviving frag- 
ments, and from the story told by 
Livy of how in 211 s.c. a figure of 
Victory on the summit of the Temple 
of Concord was struck by lightning 
but caught in its fall on one of the 
antefixes, which were likewise in the 
form of Victories. Though Livy 
does not say so it is practically certain 
that all these figures were of terra- 
cotta. They may have resembled 
the “Victory” in Villa Giulia 
(Fig. 134). 

§ 5. Terra-cottas in North Etru- 
ria—Whereas the fictile art of 
Latium seems untouched by fifth- 
century influence, that of North 
Etruria, on the contrary, is held to 


FIG. 134.—TERRA-COTTA “‘ VICTORY.” 
(Villa Giulia.) 


bear witness to that of Pheidian ateliers. This is what the Italian 
archeologist Professor Galli attempts to prove in a recent article 


with the arresting title “Fidia 
in Etruria.”” But the Pheidian 
traits adduced in support of 
the thesis are admittedly sur- 
vivals rather than contempo- 
rary manifestations. It can 
certainly be argued that the 
magnificent terra-cotta pedi- 
ment from Telamon now in 
Florence has, especially in the 
plunging horses in one angle, 
something that recalls the 
vigour of the chariots of the 
eastern pediment of the Par- 
thenon And we may concede 
that the grand figure of a war- 
riror (Adrastus>) who stands 
upright in one of the chariots, 


119 


FIG. I135.—WINGED GENII. TERRA-COTTA. 
(Bologna.) 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


goaded on by a winged Fury, is in the manner of the great 
Hellenic period. But the date of the pediment is fixed, since it 
commemorates the victory of the Romans over the Gauls at Tala- 
mone in 225 s.c. Among other fine North Etrurian pieces are 
three well-known groups from Luni; the large terra-cottas probably 
from a pedimental composition recently discovered at Arezzo, all 
of them likewise in the Florence Museum; the fine groups from 
Civita Alba (Sassoferrato) in the Museum of Bologna, representing 
the expulsion of the Gauls from Delphi on the frieze, and on the 
pediment the legend of Ariadne 
who, grouped with Dionysos, doubt- 
less appeared in the centre between 
looped-up curtains held up by winged 
genil, the Etruscan Lasi (Fig. 135). 
The whole of the peninsula was con- 
stellated with brilliant patches of 
colour made by the temples with 
their terra-cotta facings. The terra- 
cotta tile-ends encircled the temple 
as with a coronal, and broke by their 
ascensional movement the horizontal 
monotony of the architrave; while 
the long low lines of the pediment 
(higher, however, in Italic than in 
Greek art) received life from the tall 
acroteria placed over the centre and 
FIG. 136.—GODDESS FROM TERRA-coTrA at the sides. The same principles 
GROUP. ° 
anes a make themselves felt in the Baroque: 
| in the long array of statues above 
Bernini's colonnade in front of St. 
Peter’s, or in those countless others which adorn architrave and 
pediment of the churches and palaces of the Seicento. 

This short survey of decorative terra-cottas can fitly close with a 
mention of the eight pedimental figures—apparently a group of 
divinities present at a sacrifice of the Suovetaurilia—found on the 
Esquiline and now in the Museum of the Conservatori (Fig. 136). 
The seated female figure which seems to have formed the centre of 
the composition is elegantly draped in a chiton, over which is a mantle 
with dark red border. Two of the small figures, the warrior and the 
sacrificer, are modelled with great vigour. The dates of these terra- 
cottas are difficult to determine; they are Romano-Hellenistic in 
style and probably not much later than the pedimental group at the 
Villa Giulia, from the so-called ne of Apollo at Civita Castellana. 


LATIN TERRA-COTTAS 


§ 6. Statues in Terra-cotta, Toys.—It now remains to consider 
briefly the statues in the round executed in terra-cotta. From the 


temple of Mater Matuta at 
Satricum again come archaic 
examples worthy to rank with 
the Apollo of Veii; such as the 
head with right shoulder of a 
bearded Jupiter (Fig. 137), akin 
in style to late sixth-century 
Atticsculpture, which may have 
been the central figure of a 
Capitoline triad, since frag- 
ments of an Athena with egis 
and gorgoneion have likewise 
been found. A_ few later 
terra-cottas deserving of atten- 
tion may be grouped together 
here: among them the “Di- 
onysus leaning on a Satyr’ in 
the Palazzo dei Conservatori; 
and the fine bearded head, pro- 
bably of Jupiter, in the Fitz- 


FIG. 137.—BEARDED HEAD FROM STATUE. 
(Villa Giulia.) 


FIG. 138.—TERRA-COTTA STATUE 
FROM PORTA LATINA. 


(British Museum.) 


william Museum at Cambridge from the 
sanctuary of Nemi (Fig. 117). A head in 
the Villa Giulia of fourth-century Greek 
character, and coloured a deep red, possibly 
belonged to a sepulchral statue; this seems 
certain of the head at Oxford (Ashmolean 
Museum) representing a youth, pensively 
leaning his cheek on his right hand, found 
in the Esquiline cemetery. The two large 
terra-cottas—statues of Jupiter andof Juno 
(Deonna, Figs. 16, 17) and a bust of 
Minerva—found at Pompeii as far back 
as 1760 within the temple of A‘sculapius, 
probably formed a Capitoline Triad; a 
well-preserved Mercury about life-size in 
the Museo Gregoriano seems of third- 
century date (Deonna, Fig. 15); a seated 
Hercules is in the Museum of Perugia; 
while a colossal male torso in the British 
Museum—theonly known terra-cotta on so 
large a scale—may be as late as the second 


121 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME’ : 


century. To a still later period also belong various figures found in 
1767 near the Porta Latina, now in the British Museum (Fig. 138). 
Besides two terminal busts of the bearded Dionysus in the archaistic 
style of the first century, they include a seated Athena and several 
female figures identified as Muses, and, like so many of the Muse 
statues in our collections, possibly intended to adorn tombs. The 
style of all these is that of ordinary marble copies or adaptations of 
Greek sculpture. For religious purposes terra-cottas probably lasted 
far down into the Empire; almost every temple site has yielded large 
quantities of votive offerings in this material. Among this stipe 
‘ votiva are figurines of every kind, including animals, but the execu- 
tion is often so sketchy and rough that the period is hard to determine. 
A number again are good reproductions of cultus statues or of statues 
dedicated within the temples; such is the charming little Diana in 
the pose of the Praxitelean “‘Satyr at rest’’ found at Nemi. 

Toys with the generic name of sigilla, dolls or pupzx, oscilla or 
masks, were made of terra-cotta and in the poorer quarters of Pompei, 
where bronze statuettes would have been too expensive a luxury, 
terra-cottas are lavishly employed as decorations of gardens, wall 
niches, etc. 

§ 7. Mural Slabs in Terra-cottaa—The terra-cotta mural reliefs 
with figure subjects that first came into vogue as decorations of 
temples, houses, etc., in the first century B.c. next claim our attention. 
Their subjects fall into four main classes: (1) mythological scenes, 
(slaying of Actzon by his hounds; rescue of Andromeda by Perseus; 
discovery of his father’s weapons by Thesus; rape of Helen; 
Piram in the tent of Achilles; building of the Argo; Orestes on the 
Delphic Omphalos, etc.). (2) Mythological or other figures used 
decoratively, (busts and figures of Eros; Dionysiac masks and masks 
of Pan; busts of Athena and Hera; figures of Victory; Satyrs and 
priestesses flanking a candelabrum; Dionysus with his panther; 
etc.). (3) A third group reflects contemporary Egyptian fashions and 
gives pictures of Egyptian gods,temples and landscapes. (4) A fourth 
and later series reproduces scenes from the circus, the arena, the 
theatre, and on occasion from a military triumph. These reliefs 
were fashionable in the last century of the Republic and under the 
Empire. As plaques they were let into walls, or they might be 
combined in series to form a sort of valance or hanging frieze running 
along the top of a wall. Some of the examples are of great beauty 
and probably reproduce celebrated works of art. A favourite 
subject, shown in Fig. 139, is of a Bacchante and a Satyr who are 
dancing with uplifted torch and thyrsus as they swing the liknon- 
shaped cradle wherein sits the per Dionysus. Equally popular 


LATIN TERRA-COTTAS 


was the motive of the infancy of Jupiter, who is represented as a 
tender nursling, seated on the ground, and raising tiny hands in 
childish glee at the sound of 
the war dance of the Curetes 
(Fig. 140). A severer version 
of this subject occurs on the 
marble altar in the Capitol 
with scenes from the educa- 
tion of Jupiter. The dancing 
Satyr and nymph are likewise 
descended from the figures of 
dancing Bacchantes on late 
fifth-century reliefs. Of a 
more purely decorative char- 
acter is the group of two satyrs 
poised on tip-toe to reach up 
to the contents of a bowl 
placed on a high stem (Fig. EG /1 30. MURAL SLAs 

141); the quality of the draw- ea dese 

ing is of the first order, and the 

tense line of the body pleasingly contrasts with the intricate design of 
the vine tendrils. The ‘‘Athena superintending the building of the 
ship Argo’’ is a good example of 


FIG. 140.—MURAL SLAB. FIG. I41.—MURAL SLAB. 
(British Museum.) (Conservatori. ) 


mythological narration (Fig. 142), while still another is the charming 
123 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME. 


subject of Theseus and A‘thra, recently acquired by the British 
Museum (Fig. 143). . 

These plaques apparently continued in fashion as late as the age of 
Caracalla, but type and style varied curiously little The efflorescence 
of this kind of relief coincides with the middle of the first century, 
and is contemporary with the wall-paintings of the so-called Pompeian 
second style and with the earlier of the Roman series of the marble 
picture reliefs. 


FIG. 142.—MURAL SLAB. FIG. 143.—MURAL SLAB. 
(British Museum.) (British Museum.) 


Any account of Italic fictile work, however slight, must include a 
mention at least of the pottery which from the third century B.c. 
onwards was introduced into Italy in imitation of the Greek vases of 
Megara and Samos. The chief fabric was at Cales (Calvi) in 
Campania. Like their Greek prototypes, these Calenian wares were 
intended by means of their lustrous black varnish to compete with 
and imitate metal. The commonest shapes are the deep bowl with 
an embossed frieze round the interior representing a mythological 
scene, or an emblema in high relief at the bottom. The Calenian 
potters not infrequently signed their wares. Among the names 
we find those of L. Canoleios, L. Filius Calenus (on a flat cup in 
Naples adorned with Erotes hunting); of C. Popilius, who had his 
potter's shops both at Otricoli and Mevania (Bevagna); of L. 
Atinius, L. Quintus, etc. Though occasionally a genuine Roman 
subject like the Wolf and the Twins (cf. Brit. Mus. Cat. Vases, IV, 
G. 125) makes its appearance on these Calenian wares, yet they 
remain in close touch with their Hellenic models. They are mainly 


124 


LATIN TERRA-COTTAS 


interesting to the student of Roman art as having been the source 
whence in the Augustan period were derived the famous vases 
known as Aretine from their chief centre of production, which we 
shall consider in the chapter on the minor arts of the Augustan and 
Julio-Claudian periods. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Barnabei, F.; and Cozza, A., “Di un antico tempio scoperto presso le Ferriere nella 
tenuta di Conca, dove si pone la sede della citta di Satricum” (Not. Scav., 1896, 
pp. 23 f.). Barnabei, F., ““Nuove scoperte nell’ area dell’ antico tempio presso le 
Ferriere’” (Not. Scav., 1896, pp. 99 f. Conca). Bendinelli, G., “Monumenta 
Lanuvina” (Mon. Ant. Linc., xxvii., 1921, pp. 293 f.). Borrmann, R., Die Keramih in 
der Baukunst, 1897. Cozza, A., “Avanzi di antico tempio in contrada Lo Scasato 
(Civita Castellana)” (Not. Scav., 1888, pp. 414 f.). Déchelette, J., Les Vases Céra- 
miques Ornés de la Gaule Romaine, 1904. Deonna, W., Les Statues de Terre-cuite dans 
l' Antiquité, 1908. Dorpfeld, W., Die Verwendung von Terracotten, 1881. Dragen- 
dorff, H., “Terra Sigillata” (Bonn. Jahrb., 1895). Ducati, P., Storia della Ceramica 
Greca, 1922-3 (II p. 528, potteries of Cales);—Guida del Museo Civico di Bologna, 
1923. Galli, E., “Fidia in Etruria’? (Mon. Ant. Linc., xxvii., 1921, pp. 206 f.). 
Giglioli, G. Q., “Veio, la Citta Morta” (Emporium, li., pp. 59 f.);—Scultura in 
Terracotte Etrusche di Veio” (Antike Denkmaler, 1926). Gsell, S., Fouilles dans 
la Nécropole de Vulci, 1891. Koch, H., Dachterrakotten aus Campanien (mit 
Ausschluss von Pompei), 1912. Luce, S. B., “Archaic Antefixes from Cervetri in the 
University Museum, Philadelphia” (4.J.A., 1920, vol. xxiv., pp. 27 f.). Orsi, P., 
“Scavi intorno a |’Athenaion di Siracusa” (Mon. Ant. Linc., xxv., 1918, pp. 353 f.). 
Pagenstecher, R., “Calena” (Arch. Jahrb., xxvii., 1912, pp. 129f. and xxviii.,1913, pp. 
146f.). Paris, P., “Elatée” in B.E.F., 1892, p. 156, terra-cottas from Gabi). 
Pasqui, A., “Terrecotte Ornamentali” (Palestrina) (Not. Scav., 1905, pp. 24. f.). 
Pellegrini, G., “Fregii arcaici Etruschi in terracotta a piccole figure” (Studii e 
Materiali, i-i1., 1899-1901, pp. 91 f.; terra-cottas from Velletri, pp. 87 f.). Pernier, 

., Le Terrecotte decorative modellate a mano” (recent discoveries at Arezzo) 
(Not. Scav., xvii., fasc. ii., 1920, pp. 200 f.). Pfuhl, E., M. u. Z., ii., pp. 911, 915 
(for glazed pottery). Pottier, E., Statuettes de terre-cuite dans I’ antiquité, 1890 (terra- 
cottas from Ardea, p. 232);—Catalogue des Vases Antiques du Louvre, 1897-1901 (ii. 
pp. 235 f.). Robinson, D. M., in 4.J.A., XXVII, p. | (Etrusco-Campanian ante- 
fixes). von Rohden, H., and Winnefeld, H., Architektonische Rémische Tonreliefs der 
Kaiserzeit, 1911. Strutt, A., “Rapporto sopra nuovi rinvenimenti di antichita nell’ 
agro Lavinate” (Not. Scav., 1884, pp. 159 f. and pp. 239 f.). Taylor, M., and 
Bradshaw, H. C., “Architectural Terra-cottas from two Temples at Faleri Veteres”’ 
(P.B.S.R., viii., 1916, pp. 1 f.). Van Buren, E. Douglas, Terra-cotta Revetments in 
Etruria and Latium, 1921;—Archaic Fictile Revetments in Sicily and Magna 
Grecia, 1923. Walters, H. B., in Brit. Mus. Quarterly i., p. 69 f.;—B.M. Cat. of 
Roman Pottery, 1908, (with a first-rate introduction). 


125 


FIG. 144.—ARA PACIS AUGUST. (DURM’S RECONSTRUCTION). 


CHAPTER VIII 


AUGUSTUS—THE BATTLE OF ACTIUM AND THE CULT 
OF APOLLO—THE REACTION TOWARDS LATIN 
TRADITIONS 


In the preceding chapters we have studied the different influences 
that helped to form Italic art during the pre-Imperial epoch. We 
have watched the efforts of a series of great men from Appius 
Claudius down to Cesar to secure in the beauty of the capital and 
the grandeur of its monuments a visible manifestation and guarantee 
of the grandeur of the State. In their attempt to bring Rome into 
the circle of Hellenic civilization they found a constant source of 
inspiration in Greece itself and in the Orient. Augustus went 
further and understand from the first that, without seeming to 
interrupt the policy of his predecessors, he must make Rome the 
centre of its own dominion and transferthither the artistic activities 
of the Greek world; the city, he thought, must no longer be 
fashioned on the model furnished by civilizations not its own. 
The moment for this fundamental change occurred after the battle 
of Actium (31 3.c.), four year before the final reorganization of the 
Empire when Augustus was invested with the supreme power. 
This victory, gained by the grace of Apollo, the patron of Octavian, 
had an effect upon the entire Augustan age, which was manifest in 
the Empero uding policy. a ST eee 


AUGUSTUS 


§ 1. Augustus and his Plans for the Reconstruction of Rome—The 
disastrous civil wars provided Augustus with a wide field of 
activity, not only in Rome but throughout the whole of Italy. In 
the capital itself numerous temples were in ruins, and the great 
work of reconstruction undertaken by Czsar had been suspended 
or abandoned. After Actium, however, Italy gained new hopes 
of a lasting peace and Augustus saw his chance of executing his 
plans for the reconstruction and embellishment of the city. He 
is said to have boasted at the end of his life that he had found a 
city of brick and had left it of marble. This statement, like all 
attempts to condense into an epigram the tendencies of a whole 
period, must be accepted with reserve. To Augustus, perhaps, as 
he glanced back over all his activities as a restorer and a constructor, 
the facts might well appear in this light. In reality the trans- 
formation was not so radical. To substitute marble regularly for 
the less splendid earlier materials was simply to develop a fashion 
which had been gradually making its way into Rome in imitation 
of Hellenistic buildings. The discovery and working of the quarries 
of Carrara marble had, moreover, influenced the Emperor’s pre- 
dilection for the nobler building material. At the same time the 
introduction of marble did no more than affect the decorative parts of 
a building—its pilasters, its columns and the veneering of its walls. 
The integral parts of the structure, it has been recently pointed out, 
remained of concrete or of brick, two materials which were radically 
modified and improved under Augustus. In this as much as in 
tlie use of marble lies the importance of the Augustan period in the 
history of Roman architecture. 

Augustus was singularly careful never to spring innovations 
on the public. With characteristic prudence he began by com- 
pleting the plans already mapped out by Cesar, and thus secured 
for his own schemes thet popular approval which is most easily 
quickened through an appeal to sentiment. The réle of pius 
A:neas suited both his policy and his tastes, and he played it well. 
No man was ever more ably seconded than he in his enter- 
prises. At his side, as eater. stood Agrippa, his son-in-law 
and lifelong friend. The movement was further aided by a 
number of distinguished and devoted personages who contributed 
out of their own means to rebuild or adorn the capital in accordance 
with the Emperor’s ideas, a situation comparable to that created 
by the building operations of Martin V or Louis XIV, whose 
enthusiasm was so catching that the cardinals of the one and the 
great nobles of the other emulated the generous splendour of their 
master. The Empress Livia, Octavia the Emperor’s sister, Cornelius 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


Balbus, L. Cornificius, Asinius Pollio, M. Philippus, Statilius 
Taurus, Tiberius, co-regent for a time and eventually successor of 
Augustus, are only a few of the brilliant galaxy who helped to bring 
about the embellishment of Rome desired by the Emperor. 

Some of these, like Plancus who had rebuilt the temple of 
Saturn in 44 8.c., had been active in the time of Cesar, while even 
the period of the civil wars had not been as barren of building 
enterprises as it is generally represented. For instance, after 
being destroyed a second 
time by fire in 36 B.c., 
the old Regia or House 
of the Pontifex Maximus 
was splendidly restored 
by Domitius Calvinus 
after his Spanish cam- 
paign of the years 39-36 
B.c. The style of the 
fragments which may be 
seen lying about almost 
in situ is the purest 
Augustan, the first-cen- 
tury decoration having 


FIG. I145.—ROMAN BATTLESHIPS. FRIEZE FROM = aoe 5 
PALESTRINA. been evidently utilized in 


(Vatican.) the later restorations un- 


der Septimius Severus. 
Again, under the fourth consulship of Augustus, in 31 B.c., 
Statilius Taurus, one of the generals of Actium, had in the very 
year of the battle begun to build an amphitheatre near or on the 
site, it is believed, of the present Monte Citorio. A memorial of 
the actual battle seems to have survived in a fragment of a frieze 
of ships now in the Vatican (Fig. 145); it is of Augustan date and 
was found within the ruins of the temple of Palestrina. 

The way was prepared for the work which Augustus energetically 
took in hand, supported by his friends and his family. In 29 B.c. 
he dedicated the Curia Julia, the new Senate House planned by 
Cesar to replace the old Comitium.#ieold or gilt-bronze statue of 
Victory, the same, it is said, which Marcellus had brought from 
Tarentum, was placed inside by the altar at which the Senators took 
the oath (p. 128), while the pediment—as shown on the coins—was 
crowned by a Victory on a globe, which may have been a copy of 
the Tarentine image within. The bronze doors (Fig. 146) removed 
from the Curia in the seventeenth century to form the central door 
of the Lateran Basilica, probably belong to the restoration of the 

128 


AUGUSTUS 


Curia under Domitian, as a coin of that Emperor was found between 
the panels. The new Rostra, which had been removed by Cesar to 
the east end of the Forum, were dedicated in 42 3.c., by Octavian, 
but what we now see has been so 
much altered by subsequent emperors 
that it has little importance as a 
monument of the Augustan period. 
The temple vowed to Cesar by the 
Triumvirs in 42 8.c., on the appearance 
of the flaming comet, was finished and 
dedicated by Octavian himself as the 
crowning act of the triple Triumph of 
29 z.c. (Fig. 147). The temple was 
Ionic with a facade of six columns; 
in front of it, in the hollow of a high 
podium flanked by two staircases 
which led up to the platform, stood 
the altar, on the spot where the 
Dictator’s body had been burnt; the ric. 146.—sronze poor oF cuRIA. 
podium itself was adorned with the (St. John Lateran.) 
beaks of the ships captured at Actium. 

The surviving architectural fragments of the temple have recently 
been shown to belong not to a later reconstruction, as was formerly 
thought, but to the original building. Careful comparison reveals 
the close connection between 
its mouldings and those of the 
temple of Saturn and the re- 
stored Regia, which likewise 
date from the second Triumvi- 
rate. The roughness of the 
marble technique is therefore 
a mark of inexperience rather 
than of decadence; the limited 
skill of Roman masons could 
not yet keep pace with that 
increased demand for marble 
buildings, which as we have 
seen was characteristic of the 
schemes of Augustus. 

2. Temples.—When the 
Senate entrusted him in 28 3.c. with the rebuilding or restoration 
of eighty-two temples, Augustus might well accept the task with 
zest, certain that he could justify the confidence reposed in him. 

VOL. I. 129 K 


FIG. 147.—TEMPLE OF CESAR. (HULSEN.) 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


He acutely realized that any reorganization of the State or renovation 
of the city’s monuments must be on a religious basis. It is instruc- 
tive to watch how he set about accomplishing his task; his real 
love of the old Roman traditions and his profound reverence for 
the gods reassured the most conservative. He began by making the 
venerable cult of Vesta his special care, and went on to restore 
the temples of the Capitol. After having satisfied the claims of 
the traditional religion by restoring various old shrines, he built and 
dedicated in 28 3.c., close to his own home on the Palatine, the tem- 
ple which is most intimately connected with his name, and which 
stands as symbol of his religious policy. It was dedicated to Apollo, 
the giver of victory at Actium, who was henceforth called after his 
Roman seat, Apollo Palatinus, in visible fulfilment of the Virgilian 
prophecy of 42 3.c.: tuus iam regnat Apollo (Ecl., iv. 10). It is 
now generally admitted that the temple stood on the high ground 
to the south of the House of Augustus, on the site formerly identi- 
fied as that of the temple of Jupiter Victor. The podium was 
supported on a partially artificial platform whose substructures, 
with the imposing flight of steps (restored) leading up to the front of 
the temple, are all that now remains. 

The vanished splendour of the Palatine temple may be gathered 
from contemporary poets. Its portico was adorned with statues; 
round the altar in front of the temple, four bronze bulls by the 
Athenian Myron stood as if waiting to be sacrificed, and also 
perhaps to recall Apollo as divine herdsman. Here also was the 
statue of the Actian god, represented singing lyre in hand,while in the 
pediment he appeared as Sun-god in his quadriga, illuminating 
with his rays the new Orbis Romanus; in the cella stood a still 
more sacred image of the god richly robed and holding the lyre. 
This work had been brought from Greece and was attributed to 
Scopas; the god stood on a basis between Leto his mother and 
Artemis his sister. This Palatine group seems to be represented on 
a relief in the Museum of Sorrento (Fig. 148). Within the 
basis were enclosed the “Sibylline leaves,” collected and copied 
anew and significantly transferred from the Capitoline temple to 
the Palatine. The Palatine foundation meant that Apollo and all 
that Apollo stood for were no longer to be looked upon as foreign 
elements. The god who was lord of the Sibylline books had so far 
been treated as an alien, and only allowed a temple outside the 
pomerium, but now at the nod of the Princeps, Apollo was to be 
lodged on the hill whose historical and religious antiquity was 
represented as equal to that of the Capitol. The two temples 
confronted one another, emblems respectively of the old Law and 


AUGUSTUS 


the New, and Apollo Palatinus, his mother and his sister, in their 
cella on the Palatine formed the new triad destined to rival 
the time-honoured Three in the tripartite cella of the Capitol. 
At the same time it would be an error to suppose that the Palatine 
stood over against the Capitol as the embodiment of a new Hellenic 
spirit in contrast to the Roman. 
Here again, as so often, Augustus 
was not altogether an innovator, 
but gave form and substance to 
already existing elements; the Sibyl, 
who during the first centuries of 
Rome had been the instrument of 
foreign influence, was now linked 
closely with Apollo and received, we 
might say, her rights of Latin citi- 
zenship, and on the _ Sorrentine 
relief mentioned above she _ is 
shown crouching at the feet of 
the new Palatine deities. In bring- 
ing Apollo to the heart of Rome 
and in filling the god’s precinct FIG. 148.—THE PALATINE TRIAD. 
with precious examples of Greek BASE AT SORRENTO. 

art, Augustus was not striving, as 

so many had done before him, to introduce Greek art in the 
wake of a Greek cult; his aim was rather to substitute Rome 
for Greece; the temple of Apollo Palatinus was the token that 
the headship of the spiritual world had passed from Greece and 
Greek lands to Rome. Many among his predecessors had like- 
wise understood the importance of art and culture for a nation’s 
development; but Augustus surpassed the Scipios and the Gracchi 
and the whole group of Republican philhellenes in perceiving that 
a borrowed culture is not enough, that to be effective the culture 
must take root in the country itself. This seems the only reason- 
able explanation of the origins of Imperial art; the Augustan Apollo 
was the symbol of the new spiritual power of Rome; and nothing 
is more significant of this than the fact that the god’s statue in the 
Palatine Library, close to the temple, bore the actual features of 
the Emperor, in discreet allusion, maybe, to the divine paternity of 
Augustus, whose mother, it was openly hinted, had been loved 
by Apollo in the guise of a snake. Who knows but that Augustus 
had already been initiated into mysteries which, like those of the 
Pythagoreans, gave prominence to the cult of Apollo and tended to 
introduce a purer religious atmosphere? 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


Yet if Apollo was more especially the patron of Augustus, the 
other gods of his dynasty were not forgotten. In 27 B.c., a year 
after the dedication of the Palatine temple, Agrippa, the Emperor’s 
close friend and counsellor, erected on the West side of the Campus 
Martius the celebrated Pantheon (All Holiest) in honour of Mars 
and Venus, tutelary deities and acknowledged ancestors of the Julian 
gens. Statues of both gods and of the deified Cesar stood in the 
cella, and statues of Augustus and Agrippa in the vestibule. 
Caryatids by the Athenian sculptor Diogenes supported the roof; 
and it has been surmised that the Mars and Venus were part of a 
series representing the seven planets, the popularity of whose cult 
under Augustus is elsewhere attested... Of this Augustan building 
nothing positive is known beyond the fact that it was decastyle; 
otherwise authorities are not agreed even as to its plan or its orienta- 
tion. It seems possible, however, to form some notion of its ten- 
columned facade from two fragments of relief respectively in the 
Lateran and the Terme, which show an Emperor accompanied by 
lictors passing in front of a temple of which one half with its five 
columns is still preserved. These fragments, which are attributed 
on good grounds to the Julio-Claudian period (see Fig. 195), may 
well represent the Agrippan temple.! Moreover, a monument 
designed to glorify the family of a ruler eager to figure as the “new 
Romulus’”’ could not have been better decorated than by the group 
of the Wolf and the Twins which we see on the pediment of the 
Terme fragment. 

The first Pantheon was damaged by fire under Titus (A.p. 80), 
and again in 110 under Trajan; in the time of Hadrian it was 
finally superseded by the existing Rotunda. Yet the Hadrianic 
porch still bears the inscription: M. AGRIPPA L. F. COS. 
TERTIUM FECIT, transferred presumably from the original 
building. . 

It is with another temple restored by Augustus that we should 
perhaps connect a fragment of relief also in the Museo delle Terme 
(Paribeni 610) dating in all probability from the time of Hadrian. On 
the pediment of a Doric temple we are shown the augurium augustum 
or ‘Omen of the Birds” (Sc. R., Fig. 48): a flight of birds occupies 
the centre of the composition, while at the sides are on the one hand 
Romulus accompanied by Jupiter, Mars and Victory, and on the other 
Remus with Mercury Silvanus and Faustulus, watching for the por- 
tent. Just as the ‘Wolf and the Twins” was a subject particularly 
suited to the Pantheon of the Gens Julia, so the “Omen of the Birds” 


1This theory must, of course, be abandoned if the Augustan portico can be 
proved to have been octostyle like the Hadrianic (see Ashby, s.v. Pantheon in 
Top. Dict.). 
132 


AUGUSTUS 


appears more appropriate than any other subject to the temple of the 
Sabine god Quirinus, long since associated with Romulus. This 


temple we know was restored in 16 B.c. 
by the “new Romulus” in honour 
of the mythical founder of Rome; we 
also know from Vitruvius that it stood 
upon the Quirinal on a site now 
covered by the gardens of the royal 
palace, and that it was octostyle and 
of the Doric order, like the temple 
represented on the relief. 

As far back as the battle of Philippi 
in 42 3.c., Augustus as Octavian had 
vowed to Mars the Avenger a temple 
which—owing to the difficulties en- 
countered in obtaining the site—was 
only finished and dedicated forty years 
later, in 2 B.c. The temple stood in 
the Forum of Augustus, the walls of 
which still rise in places almost to 


FIG. 149.—COLUMNS OF TEMPLE OF 
MARS ULTOR (BEFORE RESTORA- 
TION.) 


their full height; it was of the Corinthian order and of its stately 


FIG. I50.—STATUE OF MARS 
ULTOR. 


(Capitol.) 


columns three are still in position (Fig. 
149). The cult figure may very well’ 
survive in a statue now in the Capitoline 
Museum though, to judge by the details 
of the armour, this is a copy of second- 
century date (Fig. 150). The Forum of 
Augustus with its temple of Mars Ultor 
adjoined on the North-east the Forum of 
Czsar with its temple of Venus Genitrix, 
and the one was as it were the complement 
of the other. Just as in the temple built 
by Czesar, Venus was honoured as mother 
of Anchises and ancestress of the Julian 
gens, so in the neighbouring temple 
erected by the nephew of Cesar, Mars, 
father of the royal Twins, was honoured 
as the avenger who had granted to the 
descendants of Anchises to triumph over 
their enemies. 

The magnificent remains of _ this 
Forum are at present being disengaged. 


Part of the high encircling wall and one of its entrance arches 
(Arco dei Pantani) are familiar features. The ground-plan is 


[35 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


a further elaboration of the temple and Forum scheme: by placing 
the temple, as here, right against the back wall of the enclosure, the 
latter assumes the character of a temple precinct. In this respect 
Baalbek, primitive Christian churches, and, in the Renascence, the 
colonnaded Piazza of St. Peter's, derive from the Imperial Fora. 
The two apses of the Forum of Augustus are likewise characteristic 
features; apses and exedras reappear in the Forum of Trajan, and of 
course at Baalbek. 

We may now refer more briefly to other Augustan temples. The 
Capitol never ceased to be an object 
of the Emperor’s veneration. Near 
the entrance a marble temple to Jupiter 
the Thunderer was put up in 26 B.c. 
in gratitude for the Emperor’s escape 
during a storm in the Cantabrian ex- 
peditions. In 20 s.c. a shrine was 
erected to Mars Ultor for the reception 
of the recovered Parthian standards 
until the large temple in the Augustan 
Forum should be ready. This earlier 
shrine was circular, as many coins show. 

The restoration by Augustus in A.D. 
3 of the temple of the Magna Mater 
has already been discussed (p. 43). 
The facade is reproduced on a coin of 
the younger Faustina, and on one of 
the Della Valle reliefs (p. 166), which shows its six Corinthian columns, 
the pediment with the goddess’s throne flanked by her Galli, and 
on the roof acroterial figures in Phrygian attire. Little by little 
Republican buildings were being reconstructed or transformed 
(Fig. 151). For example, the old-fashioned peperino columns of 
the temple of the Castores, which Cicero had twitted Verres with 
desiring to straighten, seemed doubtless out of harmony with the 
surrounding splendour, and the old building that commemorated 
the victory of Regillus was restored on a more sumptuous scale and 
in marble by Tiberius in a.p. 6; the three Corinthian columns 
(Fig. 152) now standing, and the fragments of the rich entablature 
that lie on the site, are purely Augustan in their simple elegance, 
though, from having been used again in the restoration under 
‘Hadrian, they have sometimes been falsely attributed to a later 
period (cf. above p. 3).1 In a.p. 10 Tiberius undertook to restore on 


[Photo, Ashby. 
FIG. 151.—ROMAN FORUM LOOKING N. E. 


1 The temple is octostyle and peripteral, andis reckoned the most beautiful example 


of its kind in Rome. 
134 


AUGUSTUS 


a magnificent scale the ancient Temple of Concord. In order to 
obtain more space the new ground plan differed from the usual 
type in having the axis of the cella at right angles to that of the main 
door facing the Forum. Among 
its architectural fragments, 
now in the Museum of the Tabu- 
larium, a piece of the splendid 
cornice and the bases and capi- 
tals of certain columns of the 
cella (Fig. 153) are specially note- 
worthy. These capitals, which 
display figures of rams rising from 
the volutes, show the fantastic 
variations introduced by Roman 
architects into the Corinthian 
style. This short account of the 
more important temples built or 
rebuilt by Augustus is all that 
can be given here; considerations 
of space alone would prevent our 
enumerating the eighty-two tem- 
ples which the Senate entrusted 
to his care. 

$ 3. Mausolea, Tombs and Trofea.—tTo give a new dignity to 
the dwelling-place of the dead was as much a care of the Augustan 
age as to make splendid temples 
of the gods. Here again the 
Emperor gave the lead. As early 
as 29 n.c., for instance, before 
the establishment of the Prin- 
cipate, but in the year of his 
triple Triumph and the dedica- 
tion of the temple to Cesar, 
Augustus had built on the site 
to the left of the Via Lata the 
famous round Mausoleum of the 


FIG. I152.—COLUMNS OF TEMPLE OF CASTOR. 


FIG. I153.—CAPITAL OF COLUMN OF TEMPLE ‘ 3 * 
OF CONCORD. Julian family, which, after suc- 


(Tabularium.) cessive transformations into for- 


tress and pleasure gardens during 
the Middle Ages and the Renascence, and into theatre and circus in 
more modern times, survives as Rome’s concert hall (Fig. 154). 
Though the antique portions are mutilated, yet enough remains— 
with the help of Strabo’s classic description—to make clear plan 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


and elevation. The mausoleum moreover is at present being disen- 
gaged and freed from recent unnecessary disfigurements. A square 
base supported a cylindrical drum of 
brickwork faced with travertine, which 
enclosed the central tomb chamber. 
Above the roof rose a conical mound 
divided into ledges planted with ever- 
greens up to the summit where stood 
a gilt bronze statue of Augustus. The 
shape illustrates the Emperor’s tastes 
and tendencies. He rejected direct 
imitation of Hellenistic buildings, such 
as the famous Mausoleum of Halicar- 
nassus, and chose instead a modified 
version of the circular Italic mound 
with its enclosing wall. The Augus-— 
tan Mausoleum inspired private people 
to erect tombs of a similar character: 
FIG. 154.—MausoLEum or Aucustus ‘The familiar monument on the Appian 
EO Way (Fig. 155), on whose dedicatory 
tablet we read the words Czciliz Q. 
Cretici filie Metelle Crassi (Cecilia Metella, daughter of Q. Creticus 
and wife of Crassus), is almost a counterpart of the Augustan 
Mausoleum, and dates from about the same period. It too consists 
of a circular structure on 
a square basement, and it 
is faced with travertine. 
The frieze of swags sus- 
pended from ox-heads or 
bucrania is in a technique 
midway between the 
heavier garlands of the 
tomb of Bibulus (p. 84) 
and the delicate wreaths 
of the Ara Pacis. Close- 
ly resembling the tomb 
of Cecilia Metella is the 
monument at Gaeta erect- FIG. I155.—TOMB OF CECILIA METELLA. 
ed by L. Munatius Plan- 
cus, the founder of Lugdunum and the restorer of the temple of 
Saturn, and still better known as the friend of Horace. Another 
circular tomb is that of the Plautii near the Ponte Lucano on the 
road to Tivoli (Fig. 156); yet Ane is that of Lucius Petus: 


AUGUSTUS 


part of the lower course of its masonry may still be seen on the left of 
the Via Salaria, nearly opposite to the Villa Albani. In connection 
with round mausolea a word must be said concerning Augustan 
tropa. These structures were not only memorials of victory; 
they also commemorated the glorious dead, as their circular shape 
itself implies. They are mostly in the Provinces and therefore 
outside the scope of this book; we need only mention La Turbie, 
in the French Alps, commemorating the final victory of Augustus 
over the Alpine tribes in 12 B.c. 

The tomb so long known as that of Arruns on the right of 
the road from Albano to 
Genzano affords another 
variation of the Italic or 
Etruscan type of tomb 
which found favour under 
Augustus: its first-century 
date is clear from the 
moulding of its basis, but 
the five conical cippi whose 
remains still adorn it are in 
the Etruscan manner and 
seem intended to produce 
an effect of great antiq- 
ulty. There are frequent FIG. 156.—TOMB OF THE PLAUTII. 
allusions in literature to 
Augustus’ love of the archaic. He placed works by the archaic 
Greek sculptors Bupalus and Sthennis as acroteria on the temple 
of the Palatine Apollo, and, according to Pliny, in almost all the 
temples that he built. This attention to archaic art was part of a 
deep-rooted belief that the example of the past is the best incentive 
to present endeavour. 

§ 4. Altars.—Thus far we have dealt with temples and mausolea. 
An important class of Augustan monuments still remains to be 
discussed. These are the large open-air altars which were now 
erected all over the Empire; at Lugdunum, for example, at the 
confluence of the Rhéne and the Sadéne, where Drusus set up an 
altar which dates from the same period as the Ara Pacis in Rome 
and which was the meeting-place as well as the religious and political 
centre of the Tres Galliz down to the time of Septimus Severus and 
perhaps even later. The open-air altar was one of those Latin 
institutions which go back to the remotest antiquity; we need only 
mention the Volcanal in the Roman Forum, the altar of Hercules 
in the Forum Boarium, the Ara Ditis in Tarento. But their trans- 


137 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


formation into monuments worthy of the name must be ascribed 
to the Hellenization of Rome and to the influence of the great open- 
air altars of Asia Minor. The famous altar of Pergamum, a town 
which had belonged to the Roman State since 133 3.c., must have 
been especially familiar to the Romans and left its mark upon their 
monumental conception of the altar. 

In 19 3.c. an altar to Fortuna Redux was erected by the Senate 
outside the Porta Capena to commemorate the Emperor’s safe 
return from the East. But though literature records the ceremonial 
pomp with which the Pontifex Maximus and Vestals offered up 
prayers on October 12 each year for the safety of the Emperor, 
we possess no vestige of the structure itself. The monumental 
altar set up by Augustus in 17 3.c. (the memorable year that saw 
the publication of the Aineid) to commemorate the reorganiza- 
tion of the Ludi Szculares, now combined with the old Ludi Tarentini, 
was an event of the first importance in the history of Roman art 
and religion, since it marks the connection of one of the most ancient 
sites in the city with the new centre of worship inaugurated by 
Augustus on the Palatine. The sacrifices at the Tarentum occupied 
three nights, when offerings were made to the Fates, to the Ilithyiz 
and to the Terra Mater; on two of the three days offerings were 
made to Jupiter and Juno on the Capitol, and on the third to Apollo 
and Diana in their new seat on the Palatine. On this occasion 
was sung the Carmen Seculare written by Horace. The influence 
exerted upon art by such processions as this and the similar one 
represented upon the Ara Pacis cannot be over-estimated. Liturgy 
is ordered movement and processions were as characteristic of 
Paganism (the Parthenon frieze, for example) as they afterwards 
were of Catholic Christianity. On the occasion of the new Ludi 
a great altar was erected on the site of the old Tarentum in the 
Campus Martius, but exactly where, remains uncertain. Modern 
building operations between the Chiesa Nuova and the Tiber, have 
brought to light fine peperino foundations belonging to an enclosing 
wall and one of the two pulvini of an altar now in the Palazzo dei Con- 
servatori. Since their discovery in 1886-87 it had been confidently 
supposed that these remains belonged to the Ara Ditis, but more 
recent research has thrown doubt upon this; an altar dedicated to 
the gods of the under-world would probably be beneath the ground, 
while it appears from Ovid that the real site should be looked for 
closer to the Tiber and nearer the Palatine (Fasti, I, 501, 497 f. 
and 641 f). 

Still more important, from the considerable surviving remains, 
was the Ara Pacis Augustz,voted by the Senate in13 B.c. in gratitude 

138 


AUGUSTUS 


for the safe return of Augustus from Gaul and Spain. It stood in 
the Campus Martius to the left of the Via Lata on the site of the 
modern Palazzo Fiano. It was solemn- 

ly consecrated on January 30,9 z.c., by [7 
the Emperor in person, attended by | ~ 
the priestly colleges, the Vestal Virgins, 
and the great officers of State. The 
altar itself was raised on a platform 
surrounded by a walled precinct deco- 
rated within and without by richly 
sculptured friezes, of which several 
slabs have come to light at different 
times; these were arranged in two 
superimposed tiers. Of the inner 
friezes the lower was cut into vertical 
groovings, imitated, it is thought, from 
the boarding of the temporary enclos- 
ure put up for the feast of dedication ric. 157.—swacs oF ARA PACTS. 
in 13 s.c. Above these grooves ran (Terme.) 

a double key-pattern, and above this 

again a frieze of rich swags suspended from ox skulls or bucrania 
(Fig. 157; Sc. R., figs. 25, 26). These were imitated doubtless 
from the actual garlands suspended 
between the wooden pillars, upon 
which were nailed real ox skulls in 
the earlier temporary structure. Of 
the two outer friezes, the lower one 
is decorated with delicate scrolls of 
acanthus, ending in broad-petalled 
flowers—peonies and poppies among 
them—or in rich bunches of ivy ber- 
ries, while others support the Apolline 
swan with wings outstretched (Fig. 
158). The upper frieze was adorned 
on the North and South sides with 
the famous reliefs of processions. 
These are imagined moving in two 


FIG. 158.—LOWER OUTER FRIEZE 
OF ARA PACIS. halves round the enclosure. Here one 
(Terme.) (Detail.) may see the Emperor accompanied 


by his lictors (Fig. 159) and followed 
by the college of the Flamines, by the Vestal Virgins and by his 
family, young camilli carrying their incense boxes, and beautiful 
youths. The most ingenious attempts have been made to interpret 


139 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


these various personages, among whom it is proposed to discover 
Julia and Agrippa, Livia and Tiberius, Drusus and the younger 
Antonia, the elder Antonia 
and her husband Domitius 
Ahenobarbus accompanied 
by their children. But the 
identifications seem very 
uncertain. Possibly nothing 
was intended beyond a 
generalized representation 
of the Imperial family and 
household on the South 
side, and on the North of a 
Senatorial group followed 
by a crowd of more mis- 
cellaneous character. This 
FIG. I159.—AUGUSTUS FROM ARA PACIS. . intrusion of a crowd upon 
ee the footsteps of the Em- 

peror is entirely in the 

Roman spirit, and strikes a new note; the Emperor, the Princeps 
Optimus, now appears surrounded by his people, who are of all ages, 
from the old man, identified without shadow of reason as Mecenas, 
to the children of tender years who can scarcely walk. In the Ara 
Pacis the child makes a trium-. 
phant entry into art and attains 
a position from which he has 
never been dislodged. He is no 
longer the diminutive man or 
woman of Greek art, nor are his — 
charm and grace those of the 
conventional Hellenistic putti, 
but real childhood in its infinite 
variety is pictured here; now 
we see a baby toddling along as 
best he can, almost lifted from 
FIG. 160.—PART OF IMPERIAL PROCESSION. the ground by the strong hand 
ARA PACIS. that pulls him along (Fig. 160); 

(Uffizi. ) a little girl walks demurely 

holding a stiff nosegay; and in 

front of her an older boy steps briskly forward; similarly among the 
Imperial children we see’a tiny boy holding on to the cloak of the 
man in front of him; a small elder sister smiles as she bids her little 
brother behave himself, while a young mother or attendant in 


AUGUSTUS 


the back-ground places a hand in tender admonishment on the head 
of another child. 

The precinct of the Ara had two entrances closed by doors, one 
on the east, and one on 
the west. Here pictorial 
relief groups of allegorical 
figures or else mythological 
episodes adorned the walls. 
One of the best preserved 
is the “Terra Mater be- 
tween the fertilizing spirits 
of Air and Water” (Fig. 
161), in the Uffizi at 
Florence, “symbolizing the FIG. 161.—“‘SISTER EARTH, OUR MOTHER.” 
creative forces of nature as ARA PACIS. 
restored and protected by _ ei 
Augustus” (Rostowzew). 

She is the Earth Mother whom the Italian so closely identifies 
with his native soil, the Tellus of whom Horace sings in the Carmen 
Seculare : 


Fertilis frugum pecorisque Tellus 

Spicea donet Cererem corona 

Nutriant foetus et aque salubris 
Et Jovis aura. 


She is “the Sister Earth, our Mother’”’ of the medieval poet saint: 
Laudate si, mi signore per suora nostra, matre terra 


La quale ne sustenta e governa 
E produce diversi fructi e colorati fiore e erba. 


Another slab in a good 
state of preservation is the 
““7Eneas and the Miracle 
of the Sow”’ of the Terme 
Museum (Fig. 162). The 
sow was traditional; Varro 
mentions a bronze group 
at Lanuvium of a sow with 
thirty young; and there 
may be a reminiscence of 
it in the group at the 
Vatican (H.-A. 176; Sc. 


RG fig. 14), which in its FIG. 162.—THE SACRIFICE OF ZNEAS. ARA PACIS. 
turn has points in common (Terme.) 


141 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


with the Grimani reliefs. The new sense of life and movement 
observable in the Ara Pacis, the fine arrangement of the groups, 
the life-likeness imparted 
to the faces by plastic 
indications of the pupil 
of the eye and the mo- 
bility of the glance, do 
not quite compensate for 
a certain awkwardness of 
composition arising, ason 
the reliefs of Domitius, 
from the desire to juxta- 
pose ideal and real scenes 
without attempting amal- 
gamation as in [rajanic 
and later art. 

To the same class be- 
longs the altar set up at 
Carthage in a temple of the gens Augusta. It was doubtless imitated 
from some altar in Rome and has recently been rendered famous 
by Rostowzew’s disquisition. The altar is carved on all four sides 
with scenes and figures symbolic of the Augustan era and its policy: 
on the principal face the 
goddess Roma is shown 
sitting on a pile of arms 
holding in her extended 
right hand a symbolic 
pillar and shield brought 
down by Victory;infront 
of the goddess is an altar 
loaded with the symbolic 
cornucopiz,caduceus and 
globe (Fig. 163). Roma 
thus appears here as guar- 
dian of theorb, as theorbis 
domina—the title still 
given her in medieval 
hymns. At the back, 
facing his own tripod, sits the Augustan Apollo; his chair is adorned ~ 
by griffins against which rests the god’s lyre, and in his hand he holds 
the laurel branch symbolic of the peace which follows upon victory 
(Fig. 164). On one of the sides we have the favourite subject of 


/Eneas, Anchises and Ascanius; on the other the Emperor himself 
142 


FIG. 163.—ROMA ON ALTAR AT CARTHAGE. 


FIG. 164.—-APOLLO ON ALTAR AT CARTHAGE. 


AUGUSTUS 


is shown sacrificing in presence of the Lares (see below). The 
volutes that crown the monument are in the form of two snakes 
—the familiar genii of Augustus and Livia. With these altars we 
may class the fragments in the Museum of Sorrento, generally 
regarded as belonging to an oblong statue-basis. They show 
us a typical assemblage of Augustan divinities. On the side 
already referred to (p. 131, Fig. 148), we see the Palatine triad 
—Apollo between Leto and Artemis—while the prophetic Sibyl, 
whose leaves were now safely housed within the basis of the god’s 
statue, is seen crouching exhausted at their feet. On one of the 
longer sides the goddess Vesta, whose temple had been restored 
by Augustus, sits surrounded by her priestesses and other votaries. 
She is balanced on the opposite side of the basis by Cybele the 
Magna Mater, seated with her lion at her side and a Corybant 
behind her, while the dignified figure on the right may be a priestess 
or a Julian princess. The house on the second narrow face is 
doubtless that of the Princeps himself on the Palatine; it is guarded 
by Mars and Roma with Eros between them, while smaller love gods 
hold up the wreath of oak leaves which Ovid saw nailed on the 
door-posts. Here again we may have the copy of an altar or basis 
set up in Rome. There is no doubt that the friezes of the Augustan 
temples and altars, and the Imperial statuary groups, were often 
copied or imitated for the provinces, as well as on minor objects, 
such as cameos (Ch. XII) or silver cups. For instance, the Augustus 
enthroned between Venus Victrix and Mars on a cup from Boscoreale 
(Vol. II., p. 39) strikes one as the echo of a group of statues. Another 
example, though possibly later, is the base of Ravenna (Fig. 137). 
To the same order of ideas and episodes—harking back perhaps to 
larger compositions—belong the reliefs of the cuirass of the Augustus 
of Prima Porta (below, Fig. 216) and of the cuirass of Cherchel 
(Sc. R. Fig. 22). All these reliefs, the originals and the copies, were 
a grand means of Imperial and religious propaganda. 

§ 5. Altars of Lares: sefoulchral altars—A number of small altars 
remain as records of the various religious activities of Augustus. 
One in the Museo dei Conservatori recalls the institution in 7 B.c. 
of a new festival of the Lares Compitales (i.e. the Lares of the 
fourteen new regions of Rome) which Augustus now associated to 
the cult of his own genius: on the front face is the actual sacrifice, 
and on each of the sides is the image of a Jar on a high base (cf. Altar 
of Carthage). The Lares whose cult was thus dear to Augustus 
reappear on the sides of an altar in the Uffizi, the front face of 
which shows the Emperor with Livia and one of the Imperial princes 
(Fig. 165); another fine altar, in the Vatican, is decorated on the 

143 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


front with the “Apotheosis of Czsar”’: on the back with a Victory 
between two laurels, on one side with the “Institution of the Lar 


cult,’ on the other we see the 
“Sacrifice of the Sow,” with Acneas 
standing on the right, and seated 
opposite him on the left, holding 
the ritual roll, a goddess recently 
identified as Juno Maxima—her- 
self a form of Terra Mater to whom 
the sow was sacred (Virg., A:neid, 
viii. 43-45 and 81-84). A variant 
of the type may be seen on the 
altar of Manlius at the Lateran 
(Fig. 166). These altars to the 
Lares are developments of the 
temporary altars, such as those 
painted by Theodotus (cf. Chap. 
IV), which, replastered and re- 
painted as the occasion demanded, 


FIG. 165.—AUGUSTUS AS AUGUR ON ALTAR continued in use probably down to 


OF LARES. 
(Uffizi.) 


the time of the Empire. The 
durable material of which they 
were now made reflects the impor- 


tance of these cults under Augustus, and marks yet another trans- 
formation into permanent marble of atemporary perishable structure. 
Outside Rome there are charming examples of Lar-altars at Ostia 
(Calza, p. 116) and at Pompei. At Pompei likewise in the temple 


[Photo, Moscioni. 
FIG. 166.—ALTAR OF MANLIUS. 
(Lateran Museum.) 


of the Lares we may still see the 
high podium on which stood the 
statue of the Emperor between statues 
of the Lares. On the altars the lar 
generally carries a laurel branch 
instead of the usual patera shown on 
the statuettes. Of these statuettes a 
good example is in the Museo dei 
Conservatori (Fig. 167): the Jar is 
represented as a youth dancing with 
a rhyton in one hand and a patera 
in the other. Of the Genius Augusti, 
whose cult now expanded so rapidly 
in connection with that of the Lares, 
there is a fine statue in the Rotonda 
of aa Vatican (H.-A. 304). 


AUGUSTUS 


Closely allied to altars are the decorated bases with scenes of ritual, 
probably designed to carry tripods; of these there is a beautiful 
trilateral example in the Louvre (Fig. 
168); within each of its recesses is 
represented a man sacrificing at an 
altar, while the trees, the palmettes 
supporting sphinxes, and in fact all 
the decorative details are purely 
Augustan. A similar base is in the 
Capitoline collection; on one of the 
faces a priest is seen pouring a liba- 
tion, and on the other sides are an 
Apolline tripod with an eagle. The 
laurel recalls once more the Lares and 
Apollo. Among these altars must be 
reckoned the famous example in the 
Terme (Sc. R., pl. XXI.) adorned 
with a bucranium above interlacing 
plane branches. The leaves and the 
ox-skull show Augustan relief in its fe A ar ape PS 
perfection, while the astonishing (Conservator 
naturalism of form and texture is. 
corrected by the severe, decorative quality of the Hesere 

After the large altars intended for the great ceremonies of the 
State and those of a less general character consecrated to the cult 
of lesser divinities such as the Jares and the genii, we must mention 
the funerary altars connected with 
the cult of individuals. The tradition 
of ancestral piety was deeply rooted 
in the heart of the Roman people, as 
we saw from the sepulchral reliefs on 
the tomb of the baker Eurysaces and 
the sculptures on the monument of 
the tibicines. In the period of Augus- 
tus, however, a special impulse was 
given to the symbolic decoration of 
funerary altars by the beliefs as to 
immortality and the ultramundane 
existence of the soul which then 
began to find their way into the cult 


[Faraglia. 


of the dead. Under the influence bir Cuaie 
perhaps of the Ara Pacis the sepul- Seles Ue, HEN Lo 
chral motive of the garland—always (Louvre.) 


VOL. I. 145 L 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


dear to the Romans, whose tomb-decoration was conceived as a 
symbol of resurrection of which flowers are the most perfect 
expression—constantly assumes a more beautiful form; the angles 
of the altars are generally ornamented with masks, often bearing 
the features of Ammon, likewise symbolic of resurrection, with 
torches to make light permanent and with victories in sign 
of triumph over death. Among the most telling symbolic reliefs 
are those of Nereids conducting the soul to the Islands of the 
Blest, and of Centaurs, creatures of magic and mystery, who strike 
the lyre of Apotheosis or joyously bear away Eros or the liberated 
Psyche. From the Augustan to the Flavian epoch the decoration 
of these altars became steadily richer, but in the second century 
their place was taken by sarcophagi. Not that these were entirely 
unknown, it is thought, in the 
time of Augustus but exam- 
ples would be difficult to find. 
Enough has been said to show 
the trend of Augustan art as 
a manifestation of the Em- 
peror’s religious policy; only 
a few of its more purely civic 
or secular monuments need be 
enumerated here. 

§ 6. Civic and Secular Monu- 
ments.—The Arcus Augusti in 

FIG. 109.—HORSES OF ST. MARK, VENICE. the Forum—a triple arch whose 

travertine foundations were laid 
bare in 1888—was another monument of the period. It commemo- 
rated the restoration of the Parthian standards lost by Crassus, just as 
in A.D. 17 the Arcus Tiberi, a single arch to the North of the Via 
Sacra below the temple of Saturn, commemorated the recovery 
by Germanicus of the standards lost by Varus in a.p. 7. Both 
arches were presumably surmounted by Imperial chariot-groups. 
One might be tempted to attribute to one or the other of these 
arches the horses of St. Mark (Fig. 169), from their technique of 
Augustan date, and among the grandest examples of the horse in 
sculpture that have come down from the antique. 

Between these two arches rose the Basilica Julia, whose eastern 
part coincided with the site of the old Sempronia (p. 50). It was 
planned by Cesar and dedicated in 46 B.c. after the battle of Thapsus, 
but restored by Augustus after a fire and finally dedicated in memory 
of his grandsons, Gaius and Lucius. Its ground plan was that 


of the basilicas which had developed in Greece, under the influence, 
146 


AUGUSTUS 


it now appears, of Persian models. The length was about thrice 
the depth. It was surrounded on all sides by a double row of 
arcades, which rose in two tiers corresponding to the two floors 
of the building. The arches were divided by pilasters, in front 
of which stood half columns with Doric capitals; the material was 
largely marble or revetted with marble. The elevation may be 
studied from the restored west angle of the edifice. Balancing these 
superb law-courts, for such was the Basilica Julia, rose the new 
Basilica A‘milia on the opposite side of the Forum (cf. p. 50); this 
was in the more strictly Hellenic manner deriving from the classic 
temple or hall with entrance on one of the narrow ends. The 
building was restored in 22 3.c. The pure Augustan character 
of much of the extant decoration is evident. Among the architectural 
remains are fragments of 
the entablature, whose 
metopes display alternate 
bucrania and__ sacrificial 
patere, and of the beau- 
tiful door-jambs with foli- 
age carved in low relief. 
Along the south-west side 
of the basilica, between it 
and the road, ran a long 
portico likewise dedicated, 
as the extant inscription 
shows, to the Imperial 
grandsons, Gaius and tte FIG. I170.—THEATRE OF MARCELLUS (BEFORE 
cius. Thus under Augus- Bees DES TAN: 

tus the buildings of the | 

Forum acquired a more symmetrical orientation—a further step in 
the direction of regular town-planning already aimed at by Cesar 
and his immediate predecessors. 

The system of arcading introduced into Roman building in the 
Tabularium, the temple of Preneste (p. 76 f.), and the Basilica 
Julia now developed rapidly. The Theatre of Marcellus (Fig.170), 
dedicated in 1] 3.c. in memory of Marcellus, son of Octavia the 
sister of Augustus, is another example of the perfected system, of 
which the lofty facade of the Colosseum is a still later development. 
The Theatre of Balbus, near or on the site of the present Palazzo 
Cenci, was constructed on a similar plan. Near to the theatre 
dedicated in memory of her son, Octavia undertook the restoration 
of the portico erected in 149 8.c. by Metellus, the conqueror of 
Macedonia, to surround the twin temples built by Hermodoros of 


147 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


Salamis (p. 48). The portico, now called after Octavia, continued 
to be used as a museum for the ever-accumulating art treasures of 
the Urbs. Its entrance probably had much the same shape as in the 
later restoration under Septimius Severus (see Vol. II., Fig. 479). Atits 
side, between it and the Theatre of Balbus, rose the Porticus Philippi, 
erected by Q. Marcius Philippus, the stepfather of Augustus, to 
enclose the temple of Hercules built by Fulvius Nobilior after the 
conquest of Ambracia (see p. 73). On the spur of the Esquiline 
known as the Oppius rose another porticus named after the Empress 
Livia, with a fountain in its midst. Augustus continued the trans- 
formation of the Circus Maximus begun by Cesar; he is especially 
credited with the construction of 
the Imperial pulvinar—still extant 
on the south-west slope of the 
Palatine—with various marble ad- 
ditions and with the erection on 
the spina of an obelisk of Rameses 
III. from Heliopolis (C.J.L., vi., 
702). It is now to be seen in the 
Piazza del Popolo. At the same 
time, another obelisk, that of 
Psammetichus II, was brought from 
Heliopolis, and made the centre of 
a gigantic sundial with gilt bronze 
rays. In the eighteenth century 
it was again set up in the Piazza 
di Monte Citorio. Egyptian art in 
Rome was less an influence than a 
fashion, of which we have another 
example in the pyramidal tomb of C. Cestius (Fig. 171). 

§ 7. The Campus Martius and the Buildings of Agrippa—The 
most comprehensive scheme of. building accomplished by the 
Augustan age was Agrippa’s systematic planning of the Campus 
Martius to the West of the Via Flaminia, with reference both to 
his own new buildings and to already existing centres such as the 
ancient altars of Mars and of Dis in Tarento. In this Agrippa 
appears as the precursor of Nero; though unlike him, and more 
wisely, he directed his attention to a piece of land outside the city 
where he could work undisturbed by the fetters of conservative 
prejudice. Agrippa’s Pantheon has already been referred to; on its 
southern side in the midst of a great park rose his Baths, the central 
feature of which was a large hall 45 x 19 metres with an apse 
9 metres in diameter. But what now. remains, including fragments 


148 


FIG. I171.—PYRAMID OF CESTIUS. 


AUGUSTUS 


of a remarkably well-executed frieze, is probably Hadrianic. The 
Baths included an extensive picture gallery with a painted ceiling. 
More to the north a spa- 
cious portico surrounded 
a temple of Neptune on 
or near the site after- 
wards occupied by the 
temple of the deified 
Hadrian (Vol. II., p. 113); 
it too, apparently, was 
in the nature of a pic- 
ture gallery and was 
called after a famous 
masterpiece which repre- 
sented an episode from 
the adventures of the 
Argonauts. Another por- FIG. I72.—PERUGIA. PORTA AUGUSTA. 
tico in the same region 
was named after Vipsania Polla, the sister of Agrippa, or sometimes 
the portico of Europa after the subject of its mural paintings. Well- 
laid-out gardens to the west of his baths; the large Campus 
Agrippz behind the Porticus Vipsania; a bridge, known only from 
an inscription (C./.L., vi. 31545); new granaries (Aorrea) recently 
identified between the Vicus Tuscus and the Palatine (Lugli, p. 92); 
the aqueduct of the Acqua 
Virgo which brought water 
to the Baths of Agrippa 
upon arches flanked by. 
columns that carried stat- 
ues, were among. the 
buildings which Agrippa 
gave to Augustan Rome. 
§ 8. The Augustan Period 
in Italy—The city of 
marble was not alone to 
proclaim the splendour of 
the new era. All Italy 
followed the example of 
FIG. 173.—PERUGIA. PORTA MARZIA. the capital, and cities ri- 
valled one another in civic 
magnificence, though outside Rome, as within the Urbs, the Emperor 
desired to respect and adopt ancient forms where possible. Thus 
the gates of Perugia, destroyed during the cruel and disastrous 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


Bellum Perusinum of 40 z.c., were rebuilt in Etruscan fashion 
(Fig. 172). The smaller gate, the Porta Marzia (Fig. 173), whose 
existence we owe to-day to the 
sound taste and learning of San 
Gallo, an architect of the Renas- 
cence, retains in its attic the 
typical Etruscan balustrade, with 
the group of Jupiter between the 
Dioscuri as guardians of the gate. 
Hard by at Assisi a fine Augustan 
temple dedicated to the local 
Minerva still stands on the site 
of the old Forum or market- 
place, occupying presumably the 
site of an older structure (Fig. 
174). Its capitals closely resem- 
ble those of the temple of Castor 
at Cori. Some conception of the 
splendour of the towns rebuilt or 
FIG. 174.—ASSISI. TEMPLE OF MINERVA. restored by Augustus outside the 
Urbs may be gathered in Rome 
itself from the portico on the 
west side of Piazza Colonna, whose magnificent columns were 
brought from the Augustan Veii. 
The beautiful arch of travertine at Ariminum (Rimini) com- 
memorates the restoration by Augustus in 27 B.c. of the Via Flaminia 


FIG. 175.—RIMINI. ARCH OF FIG. 176.—TURIN. PORTA 
AUGUSTUS. PALATINA, 


150 


AUGUSTUS 
(Fig. 175). The design, an arch flanked by engaged Corinthian 


columns, recalls the Sullan Tabularium and the Augustan basilicas 
and theatres. In the 
spandrels are four heads, 
Jupiter and Juno on the 
one side, Minerva and 
Neptune on the other. 
At Rimini likewise is the 
magnificent bridge begun 
by Augustus and finished ~ 
under Tiberius im A.D. 20. 
To the same period be- 
long the fortified city 
gates of Turin (Porta 
Palatina) (Fig. 176) and 
of Aosta (Fig. 177), pro- 
totypes of the celebrated 
Porta Nigra at Trier. 
The Porta dei Borsari at Verona (Fig. 178), usually held from the 
inscription of Gallienus to be of late date, is more probably Augus- 
tan in its lower part, where the same system of decoration prevails 
as at Rimini. Verona’s former Arco dei Gavi has been discussed 
above (p. 89). 


The modern Istria, now once more united to Italy, has noble 


FIG. 177.—AOSTA. AUGUSTAN GATE, 


FIG. 178.—VERONA. PORTA DEI BORSARI, FIG. 179.—TRIESTE. AUGUSTAN ARCH. 


(BEFORE RESTORATION.) 


15] 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


FIG. 180.—ARCH AT POLA. FIG, 181.—TEMPLE AT POLA. 


specimens of early Augustan art. The so-called Arco di Riccardo 
at Tergeste (Trieste), which has lately been disengaged to its full 
height, is early Augustan (Fig. 179); while the arch put up by the 
Sergii at Pola (Fig. 180) had an elaborate decoration typical of an 
advanced stage of Augustan art. On the interior of the arch we see 
rosettes within lozenges, and on the inside of the piers a complicated 
scroll pattern rising from a bunch of acanthus leaves. A delicately 
carved eagle decorates the keystone. In the same city of Pola 
stands one of the most beautiful of all Augustan temples (Fig. 181), 
interesting also from its 
combination of old and 
new elements. Nothing 
could be more Augustan 
than the mouldings, the 
beautiful acanthus-flower 
scrolls of the frieze, or the 
elegant Corinthian capi- 
tals; but the temple, like 
that of Cori, retains more 
etrusco the canonical four 
columns of the old wooden 
temples. 

In the year a.p. 10 an 
FIG. 182.—ARCH AT FANO. arch was constructed at 


AUGUSTUS 


Fano (Fig. 182), a city famous for the cult of Fortuna and for the 
celebrated shrine of the goddess (the Fanum Fortunz), attributed 


to the Augustan architect Vitruvius. 


The arch (Fig. 183) erected in 2 3.c. at Segusia (Susa) in the 


Cottian Alps, in memory of the 
transaction by which Augustus 
had induced Cottius, the king of 
the region, to exchange kingship 
and liberty for a prefecture with 
extended jurisdiction, is a monu- 
ment of singular importance. Its 
architecture resembles that of 
Rimini, Trieste or Verona, but 
the curious little frieze deserves a 
word of comment. In the very 
period of the Ara Pacis, it repre- 
sents the ceremonies connected 
with the taking of the oath of fealty 
by Cottius and the signing of the 
treaty between him and Augustus 
in a style of art untouched by the 
fashions of the capital; its barbaric 
Northern quality has affinities with 


FIG. 183.—SUSA. ARCH OF AUGUSTUS. 


the reliefs on archaic bronze situle and on the Corsini chair, and 
may quite likely be due to the survival of the Etruscan tradition in 
this backward country. The old Italic love of frontality predomi- 
nates, and the groups resemble the stiff portrait reliefs of sepulchral 


FIG. 184.—ROME. ARCH OF DOLABELLA. 


art rather than any official contem- 
porary sculpture. Many of these 
archaisms afterwards passed into 
Christian art, and indeed both the 
group illustrated and the horsemen 
of the cavalry procession might not 
inaptly adorn an early cathedral. 
Curiously naive too is the desire for 
mechanical balance and equality of 
size. The bull of the sacrifice of 
the suovetaurilia is repeated twice for 
the sake of symmetry, and the pig is 
as large as the bull. The Porta Aurea 
of Augustan Ravenna, an imposing 
double-arched gateway built with 
flanking towers, was not finally de- 


153 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


stroyed till the end of the sixteenth century; a few architectural 
fragments belonging to it may be seen in the Museum. 


It is impossible to enumerate the works of engineering throughout 
Italy that belong to this period. In 
Rome one of the last monuments of 
the Augustan principate is the arch 
of travertine put up by the Consuls 
Dolabella and Silanus (a.p. 11) to 
carry the Acqua Marcia over a street 
(Fig. 184). It is of a simple non- 
ornate type, with shapely mouldings. 
A similar purpose is served by the 
arch inside the Porta Tiburtina (now 
the Porta S. Lorenzo); it likewise 
belongs to the Augustan age and 
carries the Aque Marcia, Tepula and 
FIG. 185.—ROME. PORTA TIBURTINA Julia (Fig. 185). We will end with a 
Seperate reference to the superb remaining 
arch of the Bridge of Narni, near 
Terni in Umbria, which carried the Flaminian road (Fig. 186), and 
which still bears witness to the grandeur of such enterprises under 
Augustus. Finally, the spiral column, a form of art destined to so 
glorious a development 
under Trajan, seems to 
have made a first timid 
appearance on a_ small 
scale at this period, to 
judge from certain frag- 
ments of Augustan style, 
discovered at Catania in 
Sicily. These fragments, 
one of which represents 
a horseman in a wood, 
evidently belong to a 
[Photo, Ashby. small column adorned 

FIG. 186.—AUGUSTAN BRIDGE AT NARNI. with a spiral band. 

To understand the full 
range of Augustan art we should have to study its manifestations 
throughout the provinces of the Empire; but the Roman art 
of the provinces is so important that it requires a book to itself. 
Augustus initiated the policy, continued and expanded by his 
successors, of using art as a means of impressing conceptions 


AUGUSTUS 


of empire upon the gentes that composed it. ‘‘ The Roman Empire,” 
says Rostowzew, “was to become an Empire of self-governing 
cities, but each new city received its impress from Rome, while the 
older cities were assimilated to her image. The building policy of 
Augustus in Rome and Italy was rounded off in the provinces; in 
the Provincia itself; in Gaul; in Spain; in Africa (where Carthage 
was modelled anew), and above all in Greece. In Athens, in the 
first year of the Principate (27 3.c.), Roman monuments sprang up 
in every quarter of the city. On the north of the Acropolis a huge 
new market-place or agora was erected at the private expense of 
Cesar and Augustus (C.I.A. III. 63); in the same year, 27 B.c., a 
theatre was put up by Agrippa, one of the city’s most generous 
benefactors, and at the front of the approach to the Propylea rose 
a monument in his honour. On the Acropolis itself a small circular 
temple—a shape consecrated by Roman tradition—was built to Roma 
and Augustus. The site, too close to the east end of the Parthenon, 
which the little temple tended to mask, was ill chosen, but the beauty 
and originality of its architectural decorations were undeniable and 
have lately been amply vindicated. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 
Altmann, W., Architektur und Hiatal der antiken Sarkophage, 1902; Die 


rémischen Grabaltare der Kaiserzeit, 1905. CL. Ara Rome et Augusti Lugduno” 
(xiil., pp. 227 f.). Boll, F., “La Quarta Ecloga a Virgilio,’ Mem. Ac. di Bologna (sc. 
Mor.), 1923, p. | ff. Bowerman, H. Cox, Roman Sacrificial Altars, Brynmawr, 1913. 
Boyancé, P., Mélanges, xlii., 1925, pp. 136-146 (Ara Ditis). Carcopino, J., Virgile 
et les Origines d'Ostie, Paris, 1919. Curtis, C. D., Roman Monumental Arches, pp. 
33-45 (Augustan). Della Corte, N., Juventus, 1924. Dessau, H., Geschichte d. 
Rémischen Kaiserzeit, i., 1923. Dorpfeld, W., Ant. Denkmaler I, Pls. 25 and 26 
(Temple of Roma and Augustus at Athens; cf. G. Snijder, in Med. 1923, p. 73 ff). 
Dry, T., The Skew-bridge at Rimini in Italy, 1844. Esdaile, K. E., R.M. (Temple of 
Cybele). Fidenzoni, P., in Capitolium, II., 1927, pp. 594-600 (Theatre of Marcellus). 
Fiechter, E., “Der Tempel des Divus Julius am Forum Romanum” (Zeitschrift 
fiir Geschichte der Architektur, 1924, vii. 1, pp. 62 f.). Fitzler, K., and Seek, O., in 
W., x., p. 275 ff., (Augustus). Formigé, J.-C., “Le Trophée d’Auguste a la 
Turbie” (Comptes-Rendus de l’Ac. des Inscriptions, 1910, pp. 76 f.). Gardthausen, 
V., “Das Mausoleum Augusti’” (Rom. Mitt., xxxvi-vii., 1921-22, pp. 111 f.); 
Augustus u. seine Zeit. Gastinel, G., Rev. Arch., xxiii., 1926, pp. 40-102 (altar of 
Carthage). Giglioli, G. Q., “La Tomba di L. Munazio Planco a Gaeta” (Archi- 
tettura e Arti Decorative, 1922, p. 507);—in Capitolium, I1., 1926, pp. 395-402 (Forum 
of Augustus). Huelsen, Ch., Die Thermen des Agrippa, 1910. Kornemann, E., 
Mausoleum u. Tatenbericht des Augustus, 1921. Laistner, L. W., “The Obelisks of 
Augustus at Rome” (J.R.S., xi., 1921). Libertini, G., Frammenti marmorei inediti 
del Museo Civico di Catania, 1923, p. 7 ff. (Augustan fragment from column). 
Mancini, A., Le Statue Loricate Imperiali, Bull. Comm., 1923, pp. 151-204. 


155 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


Mattingly, H., Coins of the Roman Empire in the B.M., vol. i. (Augustus to Vitellius). 
Merlin, A., Bull. archéol. du Comité des Trav. Hist., 1919, pp. 186 and 234 (Altar of 
Carthage): Nicole, ., Catalogue d’euvres d'art conservés & Rome @ Tépoque 
impériale, 1906. Norden, E., Geburt des Kindes, 1924. Pascal, C., Studii di 
Antichita e Mitologia, 1896 (Apollo). Petersen, E., Ara Pacis Augusti, Vienna, 1902. 
Rebert, Homer F., and Marceau, H., Mem. Am. Acad., v., 1925 (the Temple of 
Concord in the Roman Forum). Rizzo, G. E., in Capitolium, II., 1926, pp. 457-473 
(Ara Pacis, with good plan and clear statement of problems of reconstruction). 
Rostowzew, M., Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire, Oxford, 1926 
(Chap. II, “The Policy of Augustus”);—‘“Augustus” (from Univ. of Wisconsin 
Studies in Lang. and Lit., No. 15; also given in Rom. Mitth., 1925);—S.E.H., 
p. 499, notes to Chap. II (gives a bibl. which is eminently useful also 
for the reliefs and art of the Augustan age). Schon, G., “Der Anteil des Domitius 
Calvinus an der Regia” (Wiener Studien, 1902, xxiv.). Schulz, B., and Winnefeld, 
K., Baalbeh, 1921 (p. 76 f. and pl. 14 for plan of temple-court). Strong E., Roman 
Sculpture, 1907, Chaps. I-III; Scultura Romana, 1923-1925, vol. i., Chaps. II-V. 
Studniczka, F., ““Ueber den Augustusbogen in Susa” (Arch. Jahrb., 1903, xviii. 
pp. | f.); Zur Ara Pacis, 1909. Tamaro, B., Not. Scav., 1923 (Temple of Rome and 
Augustus at Pola). Taylor, L. R., in A.J.A., xxv., 1921, p. 387 (altar of Manlius 
in Lateran);—‘“The Worship of Augustus in Italy during His Lifetime” (7r. of Am. 
Philolog. Ass., L. i., 1920, ix);—‘“The Mother of the Lares” (A.J.A., xxix., 1925, 
No. 3). Toebelmann, F., Rémische Gebalke, 1923. Van Deman, E. Boise, “The 
Porticus of Caius and Lucius” (A.J.A., xvii., 1913); in A. J.A., xiti., 1909, p. 170 ff. 
(Rostra of Cesar and Augustus). Weber, W., ‘Der Prophet u. sein Gott” (Bethefte 
z. alten Orient, 1925, p. 28). Wissowa, G., “Arvalheiligthum” (P.W., ii. 
pp. 1464 f.). Zielinski, T., La Sibylle, Paris, 1924. 


[56 


FIG. 187.—THE IMPERIAL FAMILY. RELIEF AT RAVENNA. 


CHAPTER [X 


THE JULIO-CLAUDIAN EMPERORS (a.p. 14-68)—TIBERIUS 
AND CALIGULA: NERO. IMPERIAL PALACES AND 
GOLDEN HOUSE 


§ 1. Tiberius, a.p. 14-37: Monuments in the Forum—The Base of 
Pozzuoli—The Templum divi Augusti; The Domus Tiberiana of the 
Palatine and the Pretorian Camp—The Temple at Nola—The Villa 
at Capri.iAugustus had died at Nola on the 19th of August, 
A.D. 14, but his influence continued undimmed in the art of the 
next three-quarters of a century. It used to be said that under 
Tiberius artistic enterprise suffered a temporary check; he was 
nearly fifty-six when he succeeded and much of his building energy 
had already been expended under Augustus. Yet what can be 
put down to the years of his principate is not inconsiderable. 

The victories of Germanicus in A.D. 17 (see p.146) gave the first im- 
pulse to the building activities of Tiberius after his accession. These 
victories were commemorated by the Arch of Tiberius in the Forum 
and the restoration of two temples in the Forum Holitorium. The 
arch had a single gate which did not span the street, but stood 
beside it below the temple of Saturn. A chariot group of the 
Emperor with the victorious general at his side probably surmounted 

Near to the arch a certain Aulus Fabius Xanthus, a Greek to 
judge by his name, together with Bebryx, a freedman of Tiberius, 
built an office for the use of the curule ediles known as the Schola 
Xantha. The interior of the small building was adorned with 

157 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


bronze benches, silver statues of the seven planets, and a figure of 
the Augustan Victory. Of the two temples of Janus and Spes in 
the Forum Holitorium, the former, built by Duilius in 260 B.c. 
was now restored by Tiberius, and the latter by Germanicus 
after being twice burnt since its foundation by A. Atilius Calatinus. 
The extant remains of both under the church of S. Nicola in Carcere 
show characteristic forms of the early first century A.D. (see above, 
. 48). 

: After the great earthquake in Asia Minor, also in the year 17, 
Tiberius contributed generously to the rebuilding of the twelve 
cities which had been destroyed. In token of gratitude the cities 
erected in Rome a colossal statue 
of the Emperor surrounded by 
twelve figures symbolical of them- 
selves. The monument has dis- 
appeared, but the statues of the 
cities seem to be echoed in relief 
on a basis now at Naples erected 
in honour of Tiberius in a.p. 30 
by the Augustales of Puteoli, 
whose Asiatic trade had doubtless 
profited by the Emperor’s gene- 
rosity. The basis, which probably 
FIG. 188.—BASES OF PUTEOLI, NAPLES. supported a statue of Tiberius, is 
rectangular. On the front is the 

inscription flanked by figures of Sardes on the left and Magnesia 
on the right. Sardes, clad in peplos and kredemnon, holds a cornu- 
copiz in her left hand and places her right hand in protection upon 
the nude figure of a boy, perhaps the local demon Tylos, who 
stands by her side. The figure of Magnesia, much weathered and 
damaged, is attired in a sleeved chiton and himation of the Phidian 
type. The twelve remaining figures are disposed in four groups 
of three: one on each of the short sides and two on the back 
(Fig. 188), divided in the centre by a slender pillar supporting a 
statuette of the Ephesian Artemis and by a tripod against which 
leans the figure impersonating Myrina, in allusion to the neighbour- 
ing Apolline oracle of Gyrneia. The occurrence of Amazon dress 
in five out of the fourteen figures is explained by the fact that 
Asia Minor was the country of the Amazons. This monument, 
together with the reliefs from the statue-bases of Sorrento, of Nola, 
(p. 159), and of Cervetri mentioned below, and from the balustrades 
of the great altars like the Ara Pacis, or the Ara Pietatis Auguste, 
form a group of the highest importance for the study of Roman 


158 


THE JULIO-CLAUDIAN EMPERORS 


Imperial art. Some, at any rate, of these reliefs are exactly datable 
and thus constitute a starting-point for research. 

At some date in the earlier part of his reign Tiberius began the 
temple of the deified Augustus, but it remained unfinished till the 
time of Caligula. It stood on the slope of the Palatine towards 
the Capitol, but its exact site has not yet been made out. It is this 
temple perhaps whose facade appears on a relief of Claudian date 
now in the Villa Medici (below p. 166); the bearded figure in the 
pediment may be Quirinus, who would be appropriate as an ancestor 
of the Roman people on a temple dedicated to the re-founder of 
the race. Within were statues of Augustus and Livia and in later 
times of those emperors who were accorded divine honours after 
their death. Above the temple on the north-west spur of the 
Palatine Tiberius built for himself a new mansion, the Domus 
Tiberiana, partly no doubt in order to leave his mother Livia un- 
molested in the house where she had lived with Augustus. Never- 
theless from the time of Tiberius the Palatine, from being, as Augustus 
had intended, the citadel of Apollo, rival of Jupiter Capitolinus on the 
opposite hill, was slowly transformed with every fresh Imperial 
residence into the citadel of the Emperor. 

During the rest of Tiberius’ residence in Rome the chief build- 
ings he erected were those of public utility, such as the Castra 
Pretoria, which was built between a.p. 21 and 23 at the suggestion 
of Sejanus to accommodate the Pretorian guards, who formed 
henceforth a permanent garrison. Of the Tiberian construction 
two battlemented gate-towers are still extant: the Porta Decumana 
and the Porta Principalis Dextra. Of the former we can trace the 
North impost of the gateway and its flat brick arch and brick pilasters 
with their capitals. Of the Porta Principalis Dextra the towers and 
the lower part of the gateway-pilasters alone remain. Both gates 
have windows, with terra-cotta hoods. 

After a.p. 26 Tiberius ceased to live in Rome. He went to the 
south, where we find him dedicating the Capitolium at Capua 
and the temple of Augustus at Nola, on the spot where Augustus 
had died. With this foundation we may connect a fragment of 
relief now in Budapest, formerly interpreted as part of a procession 
in honour of the Actian Apollo. But while the Actian god was more 
probably represented standing, Apollo, holding his lyre, is here seated 
in a nonchalant attitude looking away from the procession towards 
the ships. The relief seems of that votive class not intended 
primarily to represent any special event, but adapted as occasion 
may arise. The first man blowing the tuba is possibly giving the 
signal for a battle; and Apollo may be placed there to indicate that 

159 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


the battle, though represented after a traditional scheme, is here 
intended for Actium, and that the ships are those of the famous 
battle. If this be so, the slab may have been used allegorically 
to adorn the base of a statue to the deified Augustus (Sc. R., P 14, 
Fig. 7). 

The great work of the last ten years of Tiberius’ life was the 
erection of an immense villa on Capri. In providing himself with 
a splendid country seat he was continuing the tradition of the past 
century and anticipating the Imperial villas of Nero, of Domitian 
(in Rome and at Castel Gandolfo) and of Hadrian at Tivoli. What 
he had not ventured to do in Rome itself he was justified in doing 
at Capri; an ostentatious palace in the capital would have provoked 
opposition, as Nero afterwards discovered to his cost, but was usual 
in the country, where there was plenty of space. 

According to Tacitus there were twelve Imperial residences on the 
island, which had been acquired by Augustus in 29 z.c.; many 
of these were doubtless little more than casinos, such as may be 
found in any Italian villa to-day. The twelve were apparently 
named after the twelve gods, the largest being called the Villa 
Jovis. It is now thought that the terracing of the ground and the 
substructures date from the time of Augustus and that Tiberius 
erected the buildings above the floor level only and superintended 
their decoration. The retaining walls of the substructures and 
lower chambers are faced with opus reticulatum of tufa from Posilipo; 
they are so thick that the villa probably rose to a height of several 
storeys. Fragments of mosaic pavement and stucco relief have 
been found there which resemble those from the house near the 
Farnesina in Rome. The lower parts of the structure to the south- 
east are designed as reservoirs, probably for the Therme near by. 
Of the upper floors nothing remains.’ It would appear from the 
plan that the entrance to the Imperial apartments was complicated 
and narrow; this would agree with the traditions of seclusion and 
even account for many of the scandalous rumours which were 
current at the time. 

§ 2. Caligula, a.p. 37-41: His Circus ; his house on the Palatine ; the 
Bridge of Baiz—During his short reign Caligula planned and began 
a number of monuments, of which little or nothing has survived. 
Till the sixteenth century, however, and later there were consider- 
able traces on the west side of the Tiber of the great circus which 
was named after him and Nero, who completed it, Circus Caii et 
Neronis. This circus was the scene of the first martyrdoms, and 
in memory of the most illustrious of these the basilica dedicated to 
S. Peter later arose in the immediate vicinity. On the spina of the 


160 


THE JULIO-CLAUDIAN EMPERORS 


circus stood, among other monuments, a tall obelisk, the second 
largest in Rome after that of the Lateran, which is reckoned the 
largest in the world. It was removed in 1586 under Pope Sixtus V 
and set up in front of the basilica as record of the triumph of Chris- 
tianity over Paganism by the power of the Cross. 

Caligula continued the policy of his predecessors in his care of 
the temples; he completed the Aedes Divi Augusti. On the 
Palatine he added a wing to the North of the Domus Tiberiana, 
extending as far as the Clivus Victoriz. Of this annex only the 
faintest traces remain, though enough for Dr. E. van Deman to 
draw a brilliant picture of its vanished splendour; but of “the 
greater palace built by Caligula on the heights of the Palatine, 
through whose long halls he passed from one scene of revelry to an- 
other,’ even this imaginative archeologist has little to tell. Caligula 
also made certain alterations or enlargements upon the Capitol, in 
connection with which he built the mysterious bridge that has 
exercised the ingenuity of so many topographers. The literary 
evidence is vague and the structure was soon demolished after the 
murder of Caligula, so that nothing is now known of its appearance. 

The only other construction with which he is credited belongs 
to the same category as this fantastic bridge: namely, the freakish 
high-road he had built across the bay of Baiz in order, it is said, that 
he might ride over in the armour of Alexander the Great. But, as 
I have shown elsewhere €/.R.S., vi., 1916, p. 38), our estimate of 
Caligula needs to be revised in the light of his religious policy. He 
possibly blundered in encouraging too openly the cult of Isis, and 
in identifying the Princeps too violently with Jupiter, yet the 
identification had been attempted by Cesar and accepted by both 
Augustus and Tiberius, as coins and statues show, while the Isis 
cult remained a force in Rome up to the time of the Severi (p. 150), 
when Egyptian was replaced by Syrian influence. 

§ 3. Claudius, a.p. 41-54: His Aqueducts—Harbour of Ostia—The 
Arcus Britannicus—The Base of Cervetri—The Della Valle Reliefs— 
The Terme and Lateran Fragments—The Subterranean Basilica— 
Reliefs and Sarcofphhagi—Monument of C. Lusius Sorax.—The master- 
minds of the Julio-Claudian period after Augustus were Claudius 
and Nero. The first threw his energy largely into engineering 
works, to restore public confidence after the principate of Caligula. 
The water-supply of Rome and the safety of the corn-ships on 
which her very existence depended were his first care. His superb 
aqueducts—the Agua Claudia constructed to bring water from the 
neighbourhood of Subiaco to Rome, and the Anio Novus, which 
tapped the Anio at its source—deserve mention in any history of 

VOL. I. 16] M 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


ancient art if only for the beauty of their tall arches, probably the 
most effective arcading in the world (Fig. 189); while the noble 
twin archways that carry the aque- 
ducts over the fork of the two 
roads that lead respectively to 
Labicum and Praeneste (modern 
Porta Maggiore) rank with the best 
Augustan building (Fig. 190). 
The masonry is further remarkable 
for the introduction of undressed 
|| (rusticate) blocks, a feature that was 
_ popularly imitated in Renascence 
construction (Fig. 191). The in- 
scription of the arch records the 
construction of both aqueducts 
by Claudius in a.p. 52. Besides 
building the Claudian aqueducts, 
Claudius drained the Fucine 
Lake—represented in a _ curious 
relief at Avezzano (Fig. 192) 
which recalls the fourth style of Pompeian painting—and also 
created the harbour of Ostia (Portus), thus giving effect to one 
of Cesar’s great projects. The shifting course of the Tiber had 
long been a serious danger to the shipping which sought its open 
roadstead. Something 
had already been done for 
Ostia under Augustus, to 
whose principate we may 
date the remains of cer- 
tain therme; and, like 
that of Merida in Spain, 
thetheatre was apparently 
constructed by Agrippa. 
A few Augustan tombs 
and inscriptions are also 
known, but these are 
not of high importance. 
Claudius took the work 
seriously in hand; he 
began to construct in | 
A.p. 42 a large artificial harbour (afterwards enlarged by Trajan) on 
the right bank of the Tiber and a good way from its mouth, which, 
however, was not inaugurated in his lifetime. The famous coin, 


162 


FIG. 189.—AQUEDUCT NEAR ROME. 


FIG. I90.—PORTA MAGGIORE (BEFORE RESTORATION). 


THE JULIO-CLAUDIAN EMPERORS 


which reminds us of the afflavit Deus medal of Elizabeth, repre- 
senting the harbour with its central mole, its statues of Neptune 
and Bonus Eventus, its tall 
lighthouse, and its fleet of 
ships riding safely at an- 
chor, dates from the reign 
of Nero. From the Os- 
tian temple of Augustus 
and Rome come various 
fine fragments of sculp- 
ture, including the Roma : 
with her foot raised on re oie i 
the globe (Fig. 193). It ik i a Lo 
belonged to the group of [- Pe Ee aes 

cultus Images within the FIG. IQI.—RESTORED ELEVATION AND SECTION OF 
temple, while the Victory PORTA MAGGIORE. 

may have floated over the 

temple pediment. 

Historians and archeologists seem agreed in charging Claudius 
with lack of energy and enterprise, but his monuments show that 
he was in the line of the great town-planners, with Sulla and 
Augustus, with Nero and Domitian, with Trajan and the Antonines. 
It used to be supposed that what energy he had was spent on engineer- 
ing works, but his enterprises were not all merely of public utility. 
The beautiful Arcus Britannicus that spanned the Via Lata, with 
its proud inscription and splendid lettering, still to be read in the 
garden of the Palazzo Barberini, was no mean contribution to 
monumental art. It was 
erected in a.p. 51-52 to 
commemorate the resump- 
tion by Claudius of 
Cesar’s plan for the con- 
quest of Britain which had 
been dropped by Augus- 
tus. Though the state- 
ment that eleven British 
chieftains walked captive 
in the Imperial triumph 
might be galling to British 
pride, yet the event that 
brought the country into the pale of Latin civilization is one to which 
the inhabitants afterwards looked back with gratitude. Two fine 
fragments in the Museo Mussolini, recently discovered near 


163 


[Photo, Min. Pub. Istr. 
FIG. 192.—RELIEF AT AVEZZANO. 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


the former site of the arch, were 
probably part of its sculptured 
decoration. On the one is carved a 
soldier wearing the helmet, his cheek 
and ear protected by the buccula, and 
holding the oval shield in his out- 
stretched left arm. The other—of 
great beauty—shows a temple raised 
on a high podium, which evidently 
formed the background of a com- 
position with figures (Fig. 194). The 
style may be compared to that of the 
large relief with a procession passing 
in front of a ten-columned temple— 
of Julio-Claudian date—discussed in 
connection with the Pantheon (Fig. 
195). Two further fragments, which 
may be attributed to the Arcus Bri- 
tannicus, are those representing 
Roman soldiery, walled into the 
vestibule of the Casino of Villa 


FIG. 194.—RELIEF WITH FACADE OF TEMPLE. 
(Museo Mussolini) 


FIG. 193.—-ROMA, FROM TEMPLE OF 
AUGUSTUS AND ROMA AT OSTIA, 


Borghese (H.-A. 1529) and 
falsely held to be Trajanic. 
The impressive fragment of a 
Roman and a barbarian, in 
the Museo dei Conservatori, 
recently identified as Julio- 
Claudian, belongs to a similar 
class of triumphal relief (Fig. 
196). Other works of art were 
probably erected to com- 
memorate the conquest of 
Britain; of these we seem 
to have an echo in the 
splendid cameo of Claudius 
as triumphator at the Hague, 
and again disguised by a false 
beard as Jupiter Ammon, 
with Messalina as Isis-Ceres, 


on the Marlborough cameo in the British Museum. 


164 


THE JULIO-CLAUDIAN EMPERORS 


Claudius added a third to the 


group of Imperial residences on 


the Palatine; and the beautiful house on the summit of the hill 


FIG. 195.—AN IMPERIAL PROCESSION. 
(Terme and Lateran.) 


with the pillared fountains and 
the room with the miniature 
scenes from the Iliad (below, 
Chap. XI) not improbably be- 
long to this principate. 

With our increasing knowledge 
of the period between Augustus 
and the Flavians it is becoming 
possible to identify as Claudian 
certain sculptures whose dating 
has hitherto been problematic. 
The Lateran Museum possesses 
a relief which bears witness to the 
interest of Claudius in the affairs 
of Etruria. The Emperor appears 
here as the patron of its com- 
merce rather than as the historian 
of its antiquities, for the relief 
belongs to the base of a monu- 
ment set up by the fifteen cities 


of Etruria in gratitude for his revival of the Etruscan league. One 
slab (Sc. R., Fig. 66) represents the goddess of Vulci seated between 
Tarchon, the god of Tarquinii, and Vetulonia personified as a young 


marine deity with his oar; it was 
found with a group of Imperial 
portraits, including Augustus, 
Claudius and other members of 
the family, in the theatre at Czre 
(Cervetri). Five slabs from the 
Della Valle collection, at present 
walled up in the Villa Medici, 
which were formerly thought to 
come from the Ara Pacis, are now 
ascribed with much probability to 
the Ara Pietatis Auguste erected 
by Claudius in a.p. 43 to the 
memory of Augustus, perhaps in 
the neighbourhood of the theatre 
of Marcellus (C.J.L., vi. 562). 


Photo, German Institute. 


FIG. 196.—ROMAN AND BARBARIAN. 
RELIEF IN CONSERVATORI. 


The reliefs consist of two slabs with the sacrifices of bulls (Fig. 197 
and 198); of a fine processional scene with thirteen figures, the 
central one of whom—with the priestly apex—has the unmistakable 


165 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


lineaments of a Julio-Claudian prince and is not unlike Claudius 
himself (Fig. 199); and lastly of two slabs with representations 


FIG. 197.—SACRIFICE OF BULL. 
(Villa Medici.) 


of temples, in which we may possibly 
recognize those of Divus Augustus and 
of the Magna Mater. This use of 
buildings as backgrounds recalls the 
fragments mentioned above in con- 
nection with the Arch of Claudius 
(Sc. R., Figs. 44, 45). In the pedi- 
ment of the first relief is the bearded 
figure already noted; since the pater 
/Eneas of the Ara Pacis relief, and all 
the mythical ancestors of the Roman 
race, are invariably shown bearded, we 
may identify this figure as Romulus- 
Quirinus. The temple of Cybele on 
the second relief, with the Galli on 
either side of the pediment, confirms 


what is known of the religious policy of Claudius, who showed 
himself favourable to the cult of Attis, but established it on a new 
basis. This move, as Cumont points out, may have been intended 
as a counter-blast to the now discredited religious policy of Caligula 


FIG. 198.—SACRIFICIAL SCENE 
(Villa Medici.) 


with its exaltation of the Egyptian 
Isis. 

The worship of the Phrygian 
Magna Mater had been introduced 
in 204 3.c., as we saw in an earlier 
chapter. On account, however, 
of its perverted rites the cult was 
modified to suit Roman religious 
conceptions and the worship of 
Attis was split off from the worship 
of Cybele. But the ever-increasing 
Oriental population,particularly at 
Ostia, came to demand that Attis 
should be reinstated. Claudius, 
therefore, with a rare insight into 
the necessity of compromising 
with the Oriental cults which 
could no longer be kept out, and 


perceiving that it was better to tolerate them openly than to persecute 
them for secret practices, recognized the cult of Attis which had 
long been practised in secret, and instituted the office of archigallus, 


166 


THE JULIO-CLAUDIAN EMPERORS 


which was to be held by a Roman citizen as superintendent of the 
native priests, though at the same time he deprived the cult of any 


rites unpalatable to the Roman 
mind. Chastity among the priests 
might be observed, but mutilation 
was forbidden. To this cult Clau- 
dius seems likewise to have dedi- 
cated the celebrated Phrygianum 
(i.e. precinct of the Phrygian god- 
dess) which adjoined the circus of 
Caligula and Nero on the right of 
the Tiber. The relief of Claudia 
Syntyche which belongs to his 
principate (p. 42) is probably to 
be connected with the revival 'of 
the cult of the Great Mother of 
the Gods. 

The Claudian revival of the Attis 
cults brings us to speak of the 
hypogeum near the Porta Mag- 


FIG. 199.—IMPERIAL PROCESSION. 
(Villa Medici.) 


giore discovered in 1917 under the railway line (Fig. 200). The 
details of its building material (a pure concrete of selce) and of its 


stucco decorations point to the first 
century, and the figures of Attis at 
the four corners of the central 
ceiling relief at once suggest the 
principate of Claudius. These 
figures are all the more striking 
in the conspicuous place they 
occupy because of the total absence 
of any Oriental element in the 
rest of the building. This was 
clearly a hall of initiation into the 
mysteries of the under-world, con- 
nected it may be with the funerary 
college of some Pythagorean sect. 
Nor is it surprising to find an 
under-world cult that seems to 
have had some elements at least in 
common with that of Eleusis toler- 
ated under Claudius, who figures 
in the great Paris cameo as Trip- 
tolemus, by the side of his consort 


167 


FIG. 200.—NAVE AND APSE OF UNDER- 
GROUND BASILICA NEAR PORTA 
MAGGIORE. 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


in the character of the Eleusinian Demeter. The plan itself is of 
the highest importance; its square atrium, its nave with aisles and 
apse show the typical disposition 
of the Christian basilica, already 
fully developed by the first cen- 
tury in a purely Pagan building. 
The under-world was suggested by 
the depth at which the hall was 
built (30 feet below the ancient 
level), while the long inclined plane 
that led to it represented the de- 
scent to the lower regions. The 
method of construction is as inter- 
esting as the purpose for which 
the building was designed. The 
hall was constructed underground 
by sinking shafts and trenches in 
the earth, filling them with con- 
crete for walls and pillars and con- 
FIG. 201.—JASON AND THE GOLDEN necting them with a vaulting of 
FLEECE. BELOW: vicrory AND the same material over a natural 
aA centring of vinginv ecient nes 
excavating this soil when the con- 
crete had set. The basilica was 
apparently on land belonging to the family of the Statilu; and 
if we may accept the theory that connects it with the events of the 
year 53 narrated by 
Tacitus, when the 
younger Statilius Tau- 
rus committed suicide 
rather than face the 
Senate on a charge of 
practising magic (insti- 
gated by the younger 
Agrippina,who coveted 
is gardens), it is safe 
to date it to the first 
half or the middle of 
the first century NAD FIG. 202.—DANAIDES. STUCCO FROM UNDERGROUND 
The stuccoes of this ae oe 
underground basilica, as 
it is frequently called, are of supreme importance, but, like those from 
the House of the Farnesina, ay. ee The mythological 


THE JULIO-CLAUDIAN EMPERORS 


subjects (“‘Descent into the Water of the Mystic” inthe apse; “ Jason 
and the Fleece” (Fig. 201) of one of the aisles; the ‘Danaides”’ 
(Fig. 202) of another) and the various scenes of ritual (feeding and 
tending of the sacred snake; reading of liturgies, etc.) are many of 
them examples of accomplished composition, while the imitations of 
lustration vases and of statues placed on bases show a real sense 
of sculptural outline. Of importance, likewise, are the series of 
sepulchral enclosures that surround the walls of atrium and aisles: 
within a miniature landscape of idyllic character, a holy tree 


FIG. 203.—RELIEF IN PALAZZO FIG. 204.—RELIEF IN PALAZZO 
COLONNA. COLONNA. 


spreads its branches above the tomb (Sc. R., Pl. XVII), which itself 
is at times adorned with the image of a divinity. This type of 
‘“sacred’’ landscape is popular in the painting of the period (Vol. II 
p. 11) and in its sepulchral and religious art generally. We find it 
as background to the figures of Hermaphrodite and of Pan in two 
reliefs of Palazzo Colonna (Figs. 203, 204), which though possibly 
of later date (smoothness of texture), seem from the pervading 
Virgilian mood to be inspired by Augustan models. 

A recently discovered relief Came thought by its discoverers 

69 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


to be Hadrianic, possibly belongs to the Julio-Claudian period 
(Fig. 205): it represents a seated Mznad (or Ariadne?) facing to 
the left and grasping a goat 
by the horn; the goat, 
shown by the plinth on 
which it stands to have 
ritual significance, is ren- 
dered in a manner midway 
between the sheep of one 
Grimani_ relief (actually 
placed by certain authorities 
in the Julio-Claudian period) 
and the goats of the Trajan 
Column. The eagle at 
Gosford House—a work of 
the Ist century in concep- 
tion and technique—poised 
solitary and Imperial with 
outstretched protecting 
wings, is another fine piece 
(Fig. 206). It seems to sym- 
bolise the Augustan and Julio- 


FIG. 205.—MANAD AND GOAT. RELIEF FROM ‘ 
VIA STATILIA. Claudian age as the eagle of 
(Terme.) the SS. Apostoli does that of 


Trajan (below, p. 87). 

Already in the Julio-Claudian period sarcophagi begin to make 
their appearance—a sign perhaps 
that, already at this date, ideas as 
to the resurrection of the body 
were becoming insistent. Or 
possibly the very few examples 
known belonged to families with 
ancestral rights of inhumation 
(above, p. 46)—the Sarcopha- 
gus Caffarelli in Berlin, for 
instance. It was once thought 
Augustan, but is probably later, 
from the heavier and more 
compressed character of the 
garlands (cf. Sc. R., p. 49), 
and may be dated to the period 
of Claudius. 


By the side of the sculpture FIG. 206.—EAGLE AT GOSFORD HOUSE. 


170 


THE JULIO-CLAUDIAN EMPERORS 


and reliefs of an official and religious character we also find subjects 
from everyday life treated in the homelier Italic manner. A good 
instance, perhaps as early as the beginning of the first century, is 
afforded by the reliefs on the tomb of the two cutlers, L. Cornelius 
Atimetus and L. Cornelius Epaphra, in the Galleria Lapidaria of the 


FIG. 207.—CUTLERS AT WORK. RELIEF 


FROM A TOMB. 
(Vatican.) 


FIG. 208.—CUTLER’S SHOP. RELIEF FROM 
SAME TOW. 


(Vatican.) 


Vatican (No. 147; C.J.L. vi. 16166): the interior of their workshop 


with themselves at work is carved on the one side (Fig. 207), while 


on the front face we see 
the retail shop with the 
knives hanging up in a 
row, and a customer clad 
in the toga and a shop- 
assistant in a plain tunic 
speaking across the coun- 
ter (Fig. 208). These 
scenes from the cutlery 
may be matched by a 
number of others repre- 
senting trades, such as the 
two at Florence (Figs. 


209 and 210), one of an 


embroidery shop where a 


FIG. 200.—SHOP SCENE. 
(Florence.) 


17] 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


lady and gentleman are critically examining cushions and other 
objects offered for sale by obsequious shopmen, while, on the other, 
young shop assistants test 
their cloth in the presence 
of male customers—an- 
other subject destined to 
kecome popular and which 
reappears on the Igel 
monument and elsewhere. 
Definitely Julio-Claudian 
in date are the reliefs 
which decorate the monu- 
ment of C. Lusius Sorax at 
Amiternum near Chieti, 
now restored and set up in 
FIG, 210.—CLOTH-TESTING SCENE. f the Museo delle Terme 
wage (Fig. 211). Along the 
friezes are gladiatorial dis- 
plays (cf. p. 63) and on the pediment, arranged frontally, are the 
crowd of spectators and officials—magistrates, musicians, women, 
priests, etc. The art is rough 
and provincial, but not lacking 
in vigour and vitality. 

§ 4. Nero, a.p. 54-68: His 
Circus and Therme—The Golden 
House—The Colonnaded Approach 
—The Systematization of the City 
—The Domus Transitoria—Nero's 
Patronage of the Arts—Zenodorus, 
Severus Celer and Fabullus— 
Nero's Villas at Anzio and 
Subiaco—Copies of Greek Statues 
—Nero’s Art and Town-planning’ 
Policy —The monuments of Nero 
form an important link in the 
history of Roman art from Au- 
gustus to the Flavian emperors. FIG. 211.—MONUMENT OF C. LUSIUS 
Much, it is true, has _ been ee 
irretrievably lost; the famous 
circus near the Vatican, which 
Caligula had begun and Nero finished; his baths, which lay 
north of the Campus Martius and which were remodelled 
by Alexander Severus, have disappeared; his arch, erected 


THE JULIO-CLAUDIAN EMPERORS 


between 58 and 62 to commemorate the victories of Corbulo 
in Parthia, is known only from coins. The first temple of the deified 
Claudius, begun in a.p. 54 by the widowed Agrippina, was absorbed 
in the construction of Nero’s own Domus Aurea, to be restored and 
completed under Vespasian (Vol. II., p. 51). Of the Golden House 
itself only a few chambers remain, now buried underground, while 
the noble Neronian colonnades of the Forum have disappeared 
without leaving any traces. Yet enough remains to show what 
were the leading ideas of this building policy. 

The reconstructions under Augustus, numerous as they were, 
had been confined to temples and isolated monuments. The 
difficulty which that prince experienced in obtaining the necessary 
space for his Forum to the north of the temple of Cesar proves how 
crowded and congested the central parts of Rome had become. 
The project of laying out the city on a grandiose scale, with private 
residences and blocks of houses, at once splendid and hygienic, 
that should rival the Hellenistic cities in grandeur and be a worthy 
setting to the public edifices of Augustus, seems to have been Nero’s; 
and the fire of 64 a.p. gave him his opportunity, as that of 81 8.c. had 
given Sulla his. No reasonable scholar now accuses Nero of a 
personal share in the fire; but it facilitated both his public and 
private schemes; not only did it clear the city, but it provided 
him with a site for his “Golden House.’’ This vast villa covered 
the Oppius, or South-west spur of the Esquiline, the Velia, part 
of the Palatine, and that part at least of the Cazlian where stood the 
still unfinished temple of the deified Claudius. The actual house 
on the Oppius occupied an area calculated at about 400 x 200 
metres; all the rest formed a vast villa and park round the Imperial 
residence, with lakes, gardens, pleasure-houses, summer retreats, 
aviaries, and preserves for wild-fowl and wild animals—stately 
pleasure-grounds which supplied the sites for many buildings 
erected by his successors to obliterate his memory. In this 
Golden House we have the first appearance in Rome cf a 
real palace. Augustus had lived like a private gentleman in the 
house of the orator Hortensius; Tiberius had built a somewhat 
larger but comparatively modest residence. Caligula’s was, after 
all, only an extension of the Tiberian Palace, and the house 
attributed to Claudius was of no great extent. Nero, owing doubt- 
less to his early contact with the Hellenized East, conceived the 
erection of a vast palace surrounded by a park which in magnitude 
and in variety should resemble the paradisus of an Oriental monarch. 
But even when Vespasian had built his amphitheatre around the 
largest of the lakes, and had ou the Forum of Peace upon 

73 


\ 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


the land adjoining the vestibule of the Golden House, much of the 
park was left untouched. The statement that “the shrewd old 
Emperor Vespasian swept the whole—palace, vineyards, park, lake 
and forest—ruthlessly away”’ is a mere rhetorical repetition of what 
the ancient writers had said. Titus certainly used the Golden 
House as his own residence; his baths only occupied a site to its 
right; and the house, though probably pillaged and neglected, and 
much injured by the fire of 104 a.p., was not actually destroyed until 
the architect Apollodorus erected over it the huge Therma of Trajan, 
using the walls of the lower rooms, which he closed and filled with 
earth, as the substructures of the new building. 

Nero, however, was not content with building the Golden House. 
and laying out its park; he also remodelled the eastern end of the 
Forum between the Palatine and the Velia to form a worthy approach 
to the vestibule of his palace. The disposition of his new con- 
structions between the Forum proper and the palace at the top 
of the Sacra Via have been recently studied by the brilliant American 
topographer Dr. Esther Van Deman; her results disclose a regular. 
plan for the systematization of the Sacra Via in relation to the 
Forum and to the vestibule of the palace. A broad avenue which 
took in the old Sacra Via left the Forum just east of the Regia 
and led between magnificent arcaded porticoes to the vestibule of 
the Domus Aurea, north of where the Arch of Titus now stands. 
This new Sacra Via was cut at right angles, east of the Atrium Vestz, 
by a second road leading from the Nova Via; after crossing the 
Sacra Via it bent in a N.E. direction past the Aides Penatium! 
towards the Carine. The complex of Neronian buildings is thus 


described by Dr. E. Van Deman: 


“With the rise of the broad avenue the Sacra Via of the past vanished and 
the district became but a part of the vast scheme with which Nero sought to 
satisfy his mad passion for building after the catastrophe of 64. The four 
years of riotous building and no less riotous living came to an end. Nero 
passed from the marble-lined palace on the Palatine to the quieter gardens of 
the Esquiline; and within a few months the thrifty Sabine, passed up the 
great avenue as conqueror and restorer of the city. New streets cut in pieces — 
the Golden House; and as part of the great policy of restitution the Sacra 
Via was given back to the people in a new form and the magnificent arcades 
and halls transformed into the great warehouses, the horrea piperataria et 
Vespasiani. Sic transit gloria mundi.” 


The picture is perhaps not too highly coloured. Yet to stigmatize 
in this instance Nero's passion as mad is to fall under the spell of 
the rhetorical denunciations of Nero by his enemies. To the 


1 To be identified, it is thought, with remains under the present Church of SS. 
Cosma and Damiano. , 
74 


THE JULIO-CLAUDIAN EMPERORS 


impartial student who considers the scheme as it is now revealed to 
us, it must seem a noble example of town-planning, the only example 
in Rome itself, outside the actual castra pretoria, of the rectangular 
lay-out of the Roman camp with its intersecting Cardo and Decu- 
_ manus, which, as we have seen, was derived from the primitive 
Terramare settlements. It gave a definite shape to the straggling 
ground between the Forum proper and the Golden House. The 
stately arcaded porticoes and colonnades must have bestowed upon 
Rome a beauty of design such as their colonnaded streets gave to 
Palmyra and other Syrian cities. Martial (de Spect., ii. 1-4) has 
given a picture of the House and its approach as he must still have 
known them: 


Hic ubi sidereus propius videt astra colossus 
Et crescunt media pegmata celsa via 
Invidiosa feri radiabant atria regis 
Unaque iam tota stabat in urbe domus. 


Nero’s broad avenues between Forum and Golden House were soon 
to be swept away, but he succeeded in rebuilding part at least of Rome, 
after the fire, on a regular plan which must have been permanent. 
Tacitus has given a memorable picture of what was achieved and of 
the striking difference between the Rome built after Nero’s fire and 
the old Rome which has been described by Cicero (above, p. 5, n. 2): 
“the parts of the city unoccupied by Nero’s palace were not built 
over without divisions or indiscriminately as after the Gallic fire, 
but in blocks of regular dimensions, with broad streets between. 
A limit was placed to the height of houses; open spaces were left; 
and colonnades were added to protect the fronts of tenements, Nero 
undertaking to build these at his own cost’? (Ann. xv. 43; trans. 
G. G. Ramsay). This Neronian town-planning is of fundamental 
importance for the history of the art. 

Recent investigations have likewise enabled us to appreciate cor- 
rectly the disposition of the Golden House itself as well as of the 
arcades that formed the triumphal approach. In the vestibule, 
approximately on the site of the campanile of Santa Francesca 
Romana, stood the colossal statue of Nero as the Sun-god 
by Zenodorus, a famous bronze-worker who, in spite of his 
Hellenized name, appears to have been a Gaul. We may possess 
a copy of the head in the superb basalt portrait of Nero in the Uffizi 
(Fig. 212). The colossus itself was not destroyed at Nero’s death, 
nor do we read of any desecration or destruction of his portraits 
such as overtook the statues of Domitian at his death. Under 
Vespasian the statue was Sees to the worship of the Sun-god, 

17 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


and was exalted as the rival or even the superior of the Colossus of 
Rhodes; and later again Hadrian, as we read in Spartian, ‘ ‘caused 


FIG. 212.—BASALT HEAD OF NERO. 


it to be moved to its present place. ” 
Probably it was in the way of the 
temple of Venus and Rome; and 
its base now stands on the 
right of that temple, whither 
Hadrian’s_ architect Decrianus 
transported it by the aid of a 
team of elephants, though without 
the statue of the Moon, which 
Hadrian had intended to erect as 
its pendant. Possibly the great 
colonnaded vestibule on the side 
facing the Velia also continued to 
stand till Hadrian required the 
ground for the temple, though the 
Flavian emperors seem to have 
destroyed or modified the great 
porticoes. 


(Uffizi.) 


The ground plan of the Golden 


House itself is that of an Italian 
villa of the period, a central block with a two-storied projection 
at either side, and a garden within the -shaped area thus circum- 


scribed (Fig. 213). The projec- 
tions, instead of being at right angles 
to the facade, opened outward to 
rectify the perspective and to give 
a fuller view of the facade of the 
main building. The main block con- 
sisted of numerous rooms grouped 
round a central chamber. Their 
decoration was of the most sumptu- 
ous. Besides stucco-work, much of 
which was gilt, and the celebrated 
wall-paintings which we shall describe 
in a special chapter (Chap. XI), the 
Domus had several chambers en- 
crusted with mother-of-pearl or 
precious stones, and a banqueting- 
hall whose ceiling was covered with 
thin plaques of ivory cut out in the 


FIG. 214.—“VOLTA DORATA” (RE- 
STORED) AT NERO’S GOLDEN HOUSE. 


shape of flowers, from behind which perfume could be sprayed on 
to the guests. The room that opens on to the vestibule (60 on plan) 


176 


Mit 


\d BREEN Pele SEE ms ne 


7 
(4 


Mts 


1 pM) 
<5 


Diy 


dacs 


sal 


wyatt 
Tees ' 
f 


it bj 


WA 
i " n 


vite 


“ie 
ri 
t 


pe 
Aa) Bitty 
0 


‘ 
‘4 e ; 
eae Oboes pa cee 


77 


FIG. 213.—GROUND PLAN OF GOLDEN HOUSE. 
(After Lugli.) 


is 


VOL 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


is known as that of the Volta Dorata from the gilt and coloured 
stuccoes of its ceiling (Fig. 214). An octagonal room (84 on plan) is 
remarkable for its dome, left open to the sky like that of the 
Pantheon. 

The so-called Domus Transitoria that seems to have covered part 
of the later Flavian Palace, the Velia up to the Esquiline, was in 
reality part of the Golden House. It seems to have derived its 
name from having served as a temporary residence till Nero could 
build his Domus aurea, and this he was only able to accomplish 
after the fire of 64 had destroyed the houses and tenements on the 
ground he had been slowly acquiring. Remains of the Domus 
Transitoria may be seen under the Flavian palace: they include the 
floor of a hall (to the right of the Flavian triclinium, under a later 
nymphzeum) beautifully paved in pink marble with a flora! design 
carried out in green; a building which Boni was once inclined to 
identify as Nero’s famous circular dining-room which revolved 
like an astronomical dome with the sun, and numerous sub- 
structures, among which is a curiously shaped chamber with a 
pit and a parapet, said to have been a preserve for live fish; of this 
we shall have occasion to speak in Chap. XII when discussing the 
fishpond mosaics. Among Nero’s constructions on the Palatine is 
the long covered way (cryptoporticus), once wrongly attributed to the 
period of Caligula, that leads from the house of Augustus along 
the east side of the Domus Tiberiana to the wing of Caligula above 
the Nova Via. It also was decorated with stuccoes, fragments of 
which are still in situ. They disclose a scheme of small squares 
arranged about a rectangle which is framed within a floral band; 
upon the large central rectangle is a group of putti. The style 
closely resembles that of the stuccoes in the Pythagorean hypogeum 
of Claudian date near the Porta Maggiore, though some authorities 
incline to date them to the period of the Antonines. 

Of Nero’s encouragement of contemporary art his constant 
patronage of the sculptor Zenodorus who made his statue, of the 
architects Severus and Celer who built the Golden House, and of 
Famullus who decorated it, bears witness. He also took an 
enlightened interest in the art of the past. From the great collec- 
tions he formed come several of the best known works of antiquity: 
the famcus group of Laococn and his sons, for instance, adorned the 
Golden House; it was found in 1506, probably in the apse of a room 
80 on plan, where it is surmised Nero held poetical recitations on 
the old theme of the Fall of Troy (Vol. II., p. 126). 

Nero’s villas outside Rome also testified to his passion for Greek art. 
At his birthplace, Antium, eta built a fine harbour, he had 

7 


THE JULIO-CLAUDIAN EMPERORS 


a palace filled with works of art, and one of the niches of its sea-wall 
contained the famous Daphnephoros or Laurel-bearer which is now in 
the Terme (known as the “Fanciulla d’Anzio’’). From another 
Neronian villa at Subiaco comes the kneeling boy in the same 
Museum. Being unable to restore the Anadyomene of Apelles, he 
apparently substituted for the original a copy by one Dorotheus; 
he ransacked Greece and the Hellenized 
cities of Asia, Delphi, Thespiz, Olympia 
and Pergamon; he brought to Rome the 
Amazon of Strongylion and the Eros of 
Praxiteles; and, more important still, the 
portrait of Alexander by Lysippus, which 
seems to have influenced so much Im- 
perial portraiture from that of Nero 
himself to that of Gallienus. 

In the Rome of Nero, as often happens 
in countries where works of antique and 
modern art are juxtaposed, a style of art- 
criticism came into vogue which extolled 
the old at the expense of the new. 
A good example of this criticism is 
afforded by the discourse on ideals of 
painting which Petronius puts into the 
mouth of Eumolpus whom he meets in the 
private picture gallery of a house at 
Puteoli; by the alteration of a few names 
the easy cant cou!d represent the criticism 
of any age or country. We who, thanks 
to Raphael and other artists of the six- 
teenth century, and to the efforts of 
twentieth-century archeologists, know 
something of the beauty of the Golden ric. 215.—Nero’s cotumn at 
House and its collections, may venture ee 
to doubt whether in the age of Nero art, 
in the familiar phrase of Eumolpus, “copies only the faults of 
antiquity.” 

Only fragments have survived cof Neronian art in Rome, but one 
splendid monument of his rule has come down to us in the famous 
column of Mayence (Moguntiacum), put up about A.D. 47 by the 
cannabari or camp tradesmen of that city for the health and safety of 
the Emperor. The column is a religious and artistic monument of 
the first importance (Fig. 215). It is a glorified form of the old Italic 
“sky pillar,’ and the model of the later Jupiter and giant columns of 


179 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


the Germanic provinces. The reliefs which cover the five friezes of 
the shaft and the double plinth represent the divinities of the Roman 
state; the front face of the upper plinth bears the inscription and the 
shaft is surmounted by the bronze statue of Jupiter Optimus Maximus. 
More significant still is it to note that in the top frieze but one 
the central figure is that of Nero himself, pouring libation over 
an altar. As on the altar of the Gens Augusta at Carthage, so here 
the dominating idea is to make visible to the provincials the might 
and majesty of Rome, the blessings of the Imperial rule, the unifying 
power of the Roman Pantheon. Two native artists, Samus and 
Severus, who carved their names on the edge of the plinth, were 
responsible for the work (Samus et Severus Venicarii F (ilii) sculp- 
serunt, Dessau, 9235). Their art is naive and a little rough, though 
not without vigour and life; it is a provincial but impressive con- 
ception of the Graeco-Roman gods, technically much in advance of 
the frieze of Susa (p. 153), or of the reliefs of the Tomb of Lusius 
Sorax (p. 172). 


The importance of the Neronian Principate for the history of art 
can scarcely be over-estimated. Whatever the general opinion of 
Nero—and history has not yet pronounced her last judgment upon 
him—it must be admitted that his building policy and his measures 
for the encouragement of the arts represented the realization of the 
projects of Augustus and of the dreams of Cesar. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Amelung, W., “Frammento di un rilievo romano,” in Bull. Comm., lii., 1. Ashby, 
T., Die antiken Wasserleitungen der Stadt Rom (N.J.-B. f. Kl. alt., 1909, p. 246 ff.). 
Bendinelli, G., in Not. Scav., 1923, p. 349 (relief of Mznad, attributed by B. to the 
Hadrianic period). Boutterin, M., “La Villa de Tibére a Capri” (Mon. Ant., suppl. 
vi., 1914). Carcopino, G., “Attideia’’ (Mélanges, 1923, pp. 135 f.);—La Basilique 
Pythagoricienne de la Porte Majeure, Paris, 1927. Cook, A. B., Zeus, ii., 1926, 
pp. 93 ff. (column of Mayence); to the bibl. there cited, add E. Strong in Burlington 
Mag., xxii., 1914. Cultrera, G., in Bull. Com., lii., 1924, pp. 44-64 (relief of Mznad., 
which, like Bendinelli, he considers to be Hadrianic). Ghislanzoni, E., “Il 
Rilievo Gladiatorio di Chieti” (Mon. Ant., xix., 1909, pp. 10 f.). Hekler, A., Cata- 
logue of the Budapest Museum, 1920, p. 63, No. 90 (base from Nola). Helbig, W., 
Fiihrer, i387 p. 139, no. 1352 (“Fanciulla d’Anzio”’). Henderson, B. W., The Life 
and Principate of the Emperor Nero. Herschel, C., the two books on the water-supply 
of the city of Rome of Sextus Julius Frontinus, 1899, Huelsen, Ch., “I Gaianum 
e la Naumachie Vaticana” (Acc. Pont. Rom., 1903, pp. 353 f.). Kérber, K., Die 
grosse Juppitersaule im Altertumsmuseum der Stadt Mainz, 1915. Lehmann- 
Hartleben, K., Die antiken Hafenanlagen des Mittelmeeres, 1923 (Ostia). Mancini, 
G., in Not. Scav., 1925, p. 234 aes Claudius). Pettazzoni, R., J Misteri, 

8 


THE JULIO-CLAUDIAN EMPERORS 


1924. Platner, S. B., Ancient Rome, 1911 (2nd ed.), (p. 514, Circus Cai: et 
Neronis). Quilling, von, Die Neronische Juppitersaule der Stadt Mainz (see on 
p. 143 a sharp attack on my interpretation, to which he prefers the view of the gods as 
local divinities). Reinach, S., “Aigle en marbre dans la -collection de Lord 
Wemyss 4 Gosford House” (Longniddry), (Mon. Piot, 1896, iii. pp. 39 f.); R.R., 
i. 228 (Puteoli basis; cf. also Roscher, Lex., ii. p. 2095, and Arndt-Bruckmann, 575); 
Cultes, Mythes, et Religions, iv. 1912, pp. 54 f. (Clelia). Rodenwaldt, G., “Sarcophag 
Caffarelli” in Winckelmanns-fest-program, Berlin, 1925. Rossbach, in P.W., vi., 2, 
1986 (Famulus). Sieveking, J., “Zur Ara Pacis Auguste” (Oesterr, Jahreshfte, x. 
p. 190; suggests that the Valle Medici reliefs may represent the temple of Div. 
Augustus on the Palatine and come from the Ara Pietatis Auguste). Strong, E.., 
“Daphnephoros (the laurel-bearer)’’ (Burl. Mag., xviii. 1910, pp. 71 f.; in Burl. 
Mag., xxii., 1914 (column of Nero at Mainz; cf. v. Quilling). Strong, E., and 
Jolliffe, N., “The Stuccoes of the Underground Basilica near the Porta Maggiore’’ 
(J.H.S., xliv., 1924, pp. 65 f., with bibliography). Van Deman, E. Boise, Atrium 
Vest, 1909; “The Neronian Sacra Via’ (A.J.A., xvii., 1923, No. 4);—A.J.A., 
1924, pp. 368-398 (House of Caligula);—in Mem. Am. Acad., v., 1925, pp. 115 ff. 
(Sacra Via of Nero). Weege, F., ““Das Goldene Haus des Nero” (Arch. Jahrb., 
1913, xxvili., pp. 127 f.). Weichardt, C., Das Schloss des Tiberius und andere 
Romerbauten auf Capri, 1900. Weickert, C., in Gnomon, iii., 1927, p. 215 f. (for 
Sarc. Caffarelli). 


181 


FIG. 216.—AUGUSTUS FROM PRIMA PORTA. FIG. 217.—CLAUDIUS. 
(Vatican.) (Rotunda of Vatican.) 


CHAPTER X 


PORTRAITURE UNDER AUGUSTUS AND THE JULIO- 
CLAUDIANS 


We have seen in a previous chapter that the portraiture of the last 
years of the Republic, combined the imitation of the harsh imagines 
modelled over the face of the dead with the psychological expressive- 
ness of later Greek portraiture. Under the accomplished chisel of 
sculptors trained in Greek methods, masterpieces were produced 
such as the Roman of the Sala della Biga. Like the other arts, the 
portraiture that thus arose received further impetus when brought 
into the service of the Empire and focussed upon the reigning Cesar 
and his Court. From that timé to the end of the chapter the 
Emperor was portrayed times innumerable: 


“Imperial portraits were found practically in every inhabited place of the 
Roman Empire, since they had the political significance which national colours 
have to-day. Each Emperor had his colossal statue; his statues of rare 
stones, porphyry, basalt, alabaster; his statue of marble or bronze, his small 
busts, his pictures. They were found in public buildings of every description, 
in private houses and even in small and dirty shops. The portrait of the 
reigning Emperor was on the coinage; the Emperors themselves used their 
own image much as the moderns use crests or coats of arms on furniture and 
on utensils; it was on the silver plate of the palace, and in later times it was 
on the silken garments woven in the Imperial establishments; it appeared on 


AUGUSTAN AND JULIO-CLAUDIAN PORTRAITURE 


the standards, where it has an apotropaic function; it adorned the armour of 
the higher officers, and was placed on the post-carriages, since these were also 
Imperial, and on other licensed conveyances; the same is true in a more 
limited degree of the more prominent members of the Imperial family. . 

The Emperor’s image was set up everywhere not only as a likeness of fone as 
are, for instance, the portraits of modern royalties, but also as a cultus image, 
when it acquires much the same value as does to a Catholic a statuette of the 
Madonna” (DELBRUECK). 


§ 1. Character of Imperial Portraiture—True, Cesar and the earlier 
Emperors deprecated the worship of themselves in Rome, but even 
they had to allow it in the East, where the worship of the monarch 
had been implanted from earliest antiquity and revived by Alexander 
and his successors, who gave a new life to the conception by Hellen- 
izing it. And in Rome itself the image of Augustus, represented as 
paredros of the goddess Roma, as on the Vienna cameo (Sc. R., Fig. 57), 
acquired the glamour of sanctity. The features of the ruler became 
so impressed upon his Court and his generation that a family like- 
ness to the reigning Emperor pervades all Imperial portraiture, 
which readily falls into groups: Augustan, Flavian, Trajanic, 
Hadrianic and Antonine—precisely as in modern times we divide 
historical portraits into Tudor or Valois, into Elizabethan or Stuart, 
into Burgundian or Hapsburg. Again, as in modern times, so also in 
ancient Rome, fashion—the custom of clean shaving or of wearing 
the beard in men, the head-dress in women, the manner of folding 
the drapery—is made to accentuate resemblance. These are points 
to bear in mind before passing to more technical criteria of date, 
such as the form or size of the bust, the shape of the plinth, or the 
style of the workmanship. 

§ 2. Portraiture of Augustus.—Of the innumerable statues raised to 
Augustus, only some fifty or sixty accredited instances have survived; 
of these we need only select for analysis four or five of the more 
striking. His portrait as the boy Octavian has already been 
referred vo (p. 107). Between this and his later portraiture come 
two pieces of fairly certain date. The masterpiece of this inter- 
vening period is the magnificent head found at Meroe in the 
Soudan and now in the Bronze Room of the British Museum 
(Fig. 218). It shows Augustus at the age of about thirty; it is 
undoubtedly a contemporary portrait, broken from one of the 
statues of the Emperor in uniform, which were erected in various 
parts of the Roman Empire. The eyes with glass pupils set in a ring 
of bronze, the irises of hard black and yellow stone and whites of 
pale onyx, give reality to the statement of Suetonius, that the Emperor 
could quell a mutiny by a mere flash of his glance. This particular 
portrait may well represent Augustus at the time when he was 


183 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


proclaimed King of Egypt in his own right (30 B.c.). To this period 
belongs too the Blacas cameo, likewise in the British Museum (Sc. R., 


FIG. 218.—AUGUSTUS FROM MEROE. 
_ (British Museum.) 


Fig. 59). That the Emperor should 
have worn the royal diadem in Rome 
is unthinkable, and this alone makes it 
probable that the cameo recalls his 
suzerainty in Egypt. A portraitist 
of the first order, Dioscorides as 
some have surmised, or another of 
unknown name, did for Augustus what 
Apelles and Lysippus had done for 
Alexander, what in modern times 
Holbein ‘and Titian, Velasquez and 
Van Dyck did for the sovereigns they 
portrayed: created, that is, a likeness 
of the man which so revealed his inner 
nature through his features that the 
result is an almost mystical present- 
ment of the individual. The god-like 
serenity of Alexander, the jovial 
majesty of Henry VIII, the tragic 
countenance of Charles V are all 


raised to a higher power for having passed through the fire of a great 
artistic imagination. E.ven such a portrait is that grandest of all 
portrait statues, the armoured Augustus in the Braccio Nuovo of the 


Vatican (Fig. 216), found at Livia’s 
villa at Prima Porta. When discovered 
in 1866 it still bore traces of colouring. 
The commanding pose; the eloquent 
gesture; the male beauty of the head, 
with its strong yet sensitive features; 
the beautiful hair that so closely and 
softly enfolds the shapely cranium and 
then, like that of a boy, parts rebellious 
over the brow, are all rendered with 
subtle precision (Fig. 219). So also 
are the details of the accoutrement: 
the soft smooth texture of the linen 
tunic; the supple strength of the 
leather tabs with their fringes along 
which the light darts, plays and reap- 
pears (as in the fringe of the chair on 
which Charles V sits in an 


FIG. 219.—-HEAD OF AUGUSTUS FROM 
PRIMA PORTA. 


(Vatican.) 


AUGUSTAN AND JULIO-CLAUDIAN PORTRAITURE 


portrait at Munich); the metallic quality of the breastplate, on 
which are wrought in relief the return of the Parthian standards 


and the subjection of the conquered 
provinces, while the Lord of Heaven 
spreads out his mantle as if to enfold 
and protect the orbis Romanus upon 
which—typical of the blessings of the 
Augustan age—reclines the gracious 
Terra Mater with her babes. 

Next in importance are two togate 
statues. One in the Louvre shows us 
Augustus at the age of about thirty-five 
to forty. The face is serious but still 
youthful; the frame vigorous; the 
carriage erect; the folds of the toga 
grand and original, acting with their 
long unbroken lines as supports of the 
figure, seeming to be cut up by the 
sinus or the umbo (Hekler, 164). 

Then, considerably later than the 
Prima Porta statue, comes the togate 
portrait found in 1910 on the Via 
Labicana within the city (Fig. 220), 
now at the Museo delle Terme. The 
face is pensive and poetic; the features 
those of a man whom suffering and 
thought 
have mel- 
lowed 


FIG. 220._-AUGUSTUS FROM VIA 
LABICANA. 


(Terme.) 


without embittering. From the head 
(Fig. 221) we may well believe 
Augustus to have been the friend 
and patron of Virgil; we might in- 
deed apply to this version of the 
mperor what a modern critic has 
said of the language of Virgil, that 
“it is veined with a delicate melan- 
choly and wistful reverie upon the 
abundant travail of life.’ At the 
same time, if we compare the face 
feature for feature with the literary 


a portrait which Suetonius has left us 


LABICANA. 


(Detail.) (Terme.) of Augustus, the likeness must have 


185 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


been a speaking one; the hair precisely suggests the silken texture 
that goes with blond colouring; the rose is aquiline (eminens) and 


iG, 222.—AUGUSTUS. 
(Boston.) 


from the delicacy of the 
jaw we may well believe 
that he suffered from weak 
teeth. The Emperor seems 
emaciated, the gait is 
heavier, less buoyant than 
in the Prima Porta statue. 
The shapeliness of the feet 
shows through the calceus. 
... The picture of the 
Ara Pacis could not be 
better compieted than by 


placing the figure of the Augustus from the Via Labicana in 
front of the altar within the sacred garlanded enclosure. 


FIG. 223.—CAMEO OF AUGUSTUS. 
(Cross of Lothair at Aachen.) 


One portrait, however, the head in 
Boston, differs materially in this 
respect (Fig. 222). The features are 
so unmistakably those of Augustus 
that no doubt can arise as to whom the 
head represents, yet the hair is raised 
from skull and forehead and deeply 
modelled to produce the effect of 
richly curling locks, a rendering 
unique in the portraiture of Augustus. 

Besides the Blacas cameo in the 
British Museum, there is another, 
not much inferior though simpler in 
execution, enclosed since the Middle 
Ages in the cross of Lothair, now in 
the Treasury of the ee . 

8 


The majority of the por- 
traits of Augustus can be 
recognized by the arrange- 
ment of the locks over the 
forehead, combed straight 
forward, curling up at the 
tips, and dividing on the 
right side near the centre 
of the forehead, the hair 
being otherwise kept flat 
and close to the skull. 


FIG. 224.—AUGUSTUS (?) CAMEO BY 
HIEROPHILUS. 


(Vienna.) 


AUGUSTAN AND JULIO-CLAUDIAN PORTRAITURE 


Aachen (Fig. 223). The fine 
cameo signed by Hierophilus 
(Fig. 224) is more likely Augus- 
tus than Tiberius. Augustus 
with a slight down on his cheek 
also occurs on certain coins and 
in the bust of the Cook collec- 
tion at Richmond. Small por- 
trait heads in precious materials 
have already been referred to. 
Among the most interesting por- 
traits of Augustus are a small 
turquoise head in Florence, and 
the ivory head of him in the 
Stroganoff Collection (Graeven, 
67). A small and exquisitely 
carved turquoise of Tiberius is 
in the British Museum. 

§ 3. Portraiture of the Contem- 
poraries of Augustus.—By the side 


FIG. 225.—AGRIPPA. 
(Louvre.) 


of Augustus may be placed the admirable bust in the Louvre of 


the faithful Agrippa (Fig. 225). The deep-set eyes beneath the 


beetling brows, the power- 
ful jaw, the full though 
serious mouth offer: a 
marked contrast to the 
delicate features of Au- 
gustus, yet we see at once 
from the general concep- 
tion and treatment that the 
portraits are of the same 
period and of a man be- 
longing to the same cycle 
of thought and interest. 
An imposing bronze head 
in New York (L.H., PI. 
II.) is likewise thought to 
be Agrippa. 

Another portrait of pri- 
mary significance to be 
considered by the side of 
those of Augustus and 
Agrippa is the original— 
alas, lost—of the “Virgil 


FIG. 226.—VIRGIL BETWEEN TWO MUSES. 
(Mosaic in Bardo Museum, Tunis.) 


187 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


between two Muses,” known from the copy in mosaic found in 


N. Africa (Fig. 226). The face is that of a Roman of the early 


FIG, 227.—JULIO-CLAUDIAN PRINCE 
FROM FORMIA, 


(Naples.) 


FIG. 228.—STATUE FROM FORMIA 
(DETAIL). 


(Naples.) 


Empire; the poet sits holding an open 
volume, in which we read the words 
Musa mihi causas. .. . It would be 
interesting to be able to identify this 
mosaic as a copy of the portrait of 
Virgil which was prefixed to an edition 
of the Aneid which the poet Martial 
knew of (xiv. 186), but though the 
composition is admirably suited to 
book illustration the conjecture can 
barely be hazarded. The composi- 
tion is part of a diptych, of which the 
other half represented the episode of 
Dido. Of this only a fragment has 
survived. Other portrait paintings of 
the period, found in Pompeii, will be 
mentioned in the next chapter. 

The Romans of the early Empire, 
perhaps even those of the late Repub- 
lic, began to follow the example of the 


_ Greeks and encouraged the nude 


heroic statues of great men. Two 
notable examples are the statue of the 
Louvre (Hekler, 1565), whose identity 
is still to seek, but which may represent 
the young Cesar; and the Agrippa of 
Venice (Bernoulli, i. pl. xxi). In 
both a disagreeable effect is produced 
by adapting an individual portrait to 
an ideal type, to a Pheidian Hermes 
in the one case, and to an athletic 
figure in the other. A more fortunate 
specimen of this class is a statue re- 
cently found at Formia (Fig. 227); 
the head is evidently that of a Julio- 
Claudian prince and the features bear 
some resemblance to those of the young 
Augustus, though we should hardly be 
justified in claiming the statue as an 
actual portrait of him. Another re- 
markable Augustan statue from the 


188 


AUGUSTAN AND JULIO-CLAUDIAN PORTRAITURE 


same find is of a Roman with the toga pulled over his head, in act of 
sacrificing (head, Fig. 228). 

§ 4. Portraiture of Tiberius and 
the Julio-Claudians.—The face of 
Tiberius has physical and intel- 
lectual delicacy with a distinction 
of feature and an aristocratic 
reserve inherited from his mother 
Livia, but it lacks the poetic 
character of the best portraits of 
Augustus. A fine statue of 
Tiberius seated (from Piperno) 
is in the Vatican (Fig. 229) and 
the best of the heads is possibly 
the small turquoise in the British 
Museum, a miracle of gem- 
cutting (p. 187). 

The same dignified expression 
characterizes the portraits of his FIG. 229.—TIBERIUS. 
brother Drusus, the hero of the (Vatican.) 
German campaign of B.c. 12-9, 
portrayed in the statue from the 
theatre of Cervetri at the Lateran 
(H.A. 1171): of Germanicus the 
son of Drusus, in his statue from 
Gabii in the Louvre; and of the 
younger Drusus, son of Tiberius, 
whose striking likeness to his 
grandmother Livia is well seen in 
the Naples statue (Hekler, 187). 
To this date we may assign also a 
small bronze head in the Museum 
of Spires identified without reason 
as Sejanus (Fig. 230). The beau- 
tiful head extant in the replicas 
of the Uffizi (Fig. 231) and of 
the Capitol (Galleria, B.S.R. I., 
No. 33) is more likely Caligula 
than the ill-starred Agrippa Pos- 
tumus, with whom it has lately 
been identified. In both heads 
a striking resemblance may be de- FIG. 230.—SMALL BRONZE BUST. 


tected to Caligula’s great-grand- (Spires) 
189 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


father, Augustus and his grandfather Agrippa; we may notice in 
particular the overhanging brow and the fine nervous lips. These, 


FIG. 231.—HEAD OF CALIGULA. 
(Florence.) 


however, represent him as in extreme 
youth; but he reigned from the age 
of twenty-six to twenty-nine, and por- 
traits of him as Emperor seem to have 
survived in the head, crowned with 
oak-leaves, at Ny Carlsberg (Hekler, 
1825), and the small bronze bust sup- 
ported on a globe in the Museum of 
Colchester (Fig. 232). From Suffolk 
comes the fine head of a Julio-Claudian 
prince (Fig. 233), recently identified 
as Claudius, whose portraits, however, 
it does not resemble. In the portraits 
of Claudius, truth to nature and 


psychological insight combine to produce the sense of a quiet, 
almost humorous, temperament, though in certain of his por- 


traits the sensitiveness of the race 


tends to deteriorate into fussiness. 


and worry. In the best of his 
portraiture, however—the head 
at Brunswick, or the cameo at 
Windsor (Fig. 234)—the expres- 
sion, though lacking the poetic 
and intellectual quality of that of 
Augustus, is that of a man cauti- 
ous, intelligent and _ perhaps 
somewhat matter of fact, such 
as we may suppose the Emperor 
to have been who planned the 
Roman aqueducts, who carried 


out the conquest of Britain, and’ 


effected its settlement, and who 
devoted his leisure to writing a 
history of the ancient Etruscans. 
On the famous cameo of the 
Cornucopie at Vienna (Fig. 235) 
the two Imperial couples, Clau- 
dius with the younger Agrippina, 
and his brother Germanicus with 
the elder Agrippina, are repre- 
sented as the sources of fertility 


FIG. 232.—SMALL BRONZE BUST (CALIGULA?),. 
(Colchester.) 


190 


“a 


AUGUSTAN AND JULIO-CLAUDIAN PORTRAITURE 


and abundance, and the 
same conception inspires 
the design on the silver 
patera from Aquileia— 
now in Vienna—where the 
Terra Mater is shown 
welcoming the blessings 
of the Imperial rule 
(Vol. II., p. 37). This ten- 
dency to identify the Em- 
peror with a divine power 
culminates in the colossal 
statue of Claudius as Jupi- 
ter in the Rotonda of the 
Vatican (Fig. 217). That 


FIG. 234.—CAMEO OF CLAUDIUS. 
(H.M. Collection, Windsor.) 


stretched wings may still be seen 


at the Prado. 


§ 5. Imperial Portrait Groups. 


FIG. 233.—JULIO-CLAUDIAN HEAD. BRONZE. 


(Private Collection.) 


the Apotheosis of Claudius was in- 
vested with great pomp and ceremony 
seems attested by the malignant sneers 
of Seneca, for no satirist wastes his 
powder and shot on what is obscure or 
unimportant. The event was proba- 
bly made the occasion for issuing por- 
traits of the Divus; among these we 
may almost certainly reckon a bust 
discovered in the Sacrarium or shrine 
of the Gens Julia at Boville. It found 
its way to the Escorial, but unfortu- 
nately disappeared, though the pedes- 
tal supported by an eagle with out- 


—Family groups of Imperial 
personages were not uncommon. 
One example is afforded by the 
relief at Ravenna (Fig. 187), in- 
terpreted as Augustus and Livia 
(or is it Venus Genitrix>?), 
accompanied by two __ Julio- 


FIG. 235.—THE FAMILY OF CLAUDIUS, 
(Cameo in Vienna.) 


191 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


Claudian princes with Roma seated on the left. This peculiarly 
interesting relief very probably adorned the base of an Imperial 
statue, or more probably group of statues. We have already 
referred to the group of Julio-Claudian statues at the Lateran, 
representing Claudius surrounded by the princes and princesses 
of his House, from the theatre at Cervetri, and to that from Formize. 
Interesting statues, over life-size, of Augustus and Tiberius were 
recently found at Venafro and are now in Naples. In the Macellum 
of Pompei, erected in the Principate of Claudius, a little chapel 
apparently held statues of different members of the Imperial family, 
with Claudius himself in the centre, holding the symbolic globe. At 
Corinth a notable series of full-length 
Imperial portraits has been found, in- 
cluding the Emperor himself with his 
two grandsons, Lucius and Gaius. 
Another series existed at Olympia, 
among which was a peculiarly beautiful 
Agrippina (Sc. R., Fig. 214). 

§ 6. Portraiture of Nero—In Nero, 
who was the son of the second Agrip- 
pina, the grandson of Germanicus and 
the elder Agrippina and the great- 
nephew of Claudius, Julio-Claudian 
portraiture found another subject 
worthy of its power. In the simplest 
version of his portrait, the head in 
the Terme (Hekler, 183), the likeness 
to the Claudian branch of his family 
is obvious in the shape of brow and 
eyes and in the curves of the mouth. 
In the basalt bust of the Uffizi 
(Fig. 212) the likeness is subordinated to the attempt to give to the 
head the exalted expression of Alexander. We hear also of his order- 
ing a portrait of himself to be painted (Vol. II., p. 29). It was 120 feet 
high and was set up in the Palace of the Licinian Gardens and after- 
wards injured or destroyed by lightning. Nero was a Julio-Claudian, 
it must be remembered, on his mother’s side alone, and his strong 
facial characteristics cannot be entirely understood so long as we 
know nothing of the portraiture of his paternal ancestors, the Domitii. | 
It may be worth considering whether the wonderful head in the 
Terme, with the wild eyes, long named Caligula and recently 
published as Claudius, may not more probably be Nero (Fig. 


236). 
! 192 


FIG. 236.—JULIO-CLAUDIAN EMPEROR. 
(Terme.) 


AUGUSTAN AND JULIO-CLAUDIAN PORTRAITURE 


§ 7. Portraiture of the Contemporaries of the Julio-Claudians.— 
Among busts of non-Imperial personages of the Julio-Claudian 
period, we may note the portrait 
extant in several versions (Capitol, 
Louvre, etc.) of Cn. Domitius Cor- 
bulo, the victorious but ill-starred 
general of Nero, and the father of 
the Empress Domitia (Hekler, 199a 
and 6). Another typical portrait of the 
epoch is that of the banker L. Cacilius 
Jucundus (Naples), which, in its 
physical realism—rendering of wrin- 
kles, furrows and even warts—recalls 
the portraiture of the Italian Quattro- 
cento (Fig. 251): Among bronzes, FIG. 237.—THE BANKER, L. CECILIUS 
one of the very finest is the equestrian LSE, 
fragment from Herculaneum in ace 
Naples (L. H. pl. xxiv) belonging to 
a type of statue that had been too much neglected. 

§ 8. Portraiture of Women.—The Romans of the Augustan age 
excelled in the portraiture of women. First and foremost come the 
portraits of the life-long companion of Augustus, his devoted and 
intelligent wife the Empress Livia. Her early portraiture as a 
young woman is as yet unknown. The best authenticated of the later 
portraits is at Ny Carlsberg 
(Fig. 238). It gives her 
the coiffure with elaborate 
side-ringlets and _ broad 
bandeau puffed out a la 
grecgue which the ladies of 
the Imperial family adopt- 
ed to flatter the taste of 
the Emperor for the 
archaic, though the Em- 

FIG. 238,—THE EMPRESS LIVIA. press must have been 

(Ny Carlsberg.) : : 

nearing seventy when this 

fashion appeared. The 

artist had the good taste not to represent Livia as young, which 

would have been ridiculous, but limits himself to essential traits 

without definitely marking her age; it is a portrait such as descen- 

dants would be proud of. It is evident, however, that the Romans 

—outside the Imperial circles at any rate—did not always “‘idealize 

their grandmothers.” For example, the head of a masculine old 
VOL. I. 193 O 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


lady at Ny Carlsberg i is represented 
with an uncompromising realism 
worthy of Durer or of Rembrandt, 
though without any of their tender- 
ness for old age (Hekler, 201). A 
statue wearing a diadem, at Oxford, 
and a fragment of a head at Petrograd 
have lately been identified as Livia. 
A head at Ny Carlsberg, sometimes 
called Agrippina (Fig. 239), combines 
high-bred_ distinction with more 
emotion than is usual at this time. 
The eyes seem suffused with tears; 
the mouth with its turned-dewn cor- 
ners is tremulous with some hidden 
pain; the pose of the head is plead- 

FIG. 239.—JULIO-CLAUDIAN LADY. ing and pathetic; the pure brow is 

(Ny Carlsberg.) framed by beautiful waves of hair, 
twisted at each side into long spiral 
curls drawn back and tied into a knot at the nape. 

An authentic portrait of the splendid and haughty Agrippina the 
Elder survives in the head of root of emerald (Fig. 240) in the 
British Museum. The hard pupils, thin lips, short but firm jaw, 
and powerful cranium, accentuated by the coiffure with puffed-out 
bandeaux then coming into fashion, agree with the effigy on the 
coins. ‘A similar style of hairdressing is seen on the cameo of 
Antonia, also in the British Museum (Fig. 241). 

About this type cf portrait we may group further two fine heads 
in the Capitol collection, respectively called the Elder and the 
Younger Agrippina and 
the celebrated Ludovisi 
head of an Imperial lady 
as Juno (H.A. 1305). 
Also in the Capitol col- 
lection is a head of 
slightly later date, as 
shown by the coiffure, 
that long passed for 
Messalina, the wife of 
Claudius, an identifica- 
tion which though un- 
proved represents the yo. 240.—THE ELDER AGRIPPINA. ROOT OF EMERALD. 
approximate date. A fine (British Museum.) 


194 


AUGUSTAN AND JULIO-CLAUDIAN PORTRAITURE 


and expressive head of the same period 
is in the Braccio Nuovo of the Vatican 
(Fig. 242). It is of a woman of about 
thirty, with thin long face and sombre 
expression; modelling and drawing are 
alike excellent. A bust found in the 
tomb where was buried the fourteen- 
year-old Minatia Polla, and which may 
therefore be that of the girl herself; 
another of similar character in the 
Museum of Naples (Hekler, 210), are 
good instances of the portraiture of 
young girls. Another instance is the 
charming statue from Ostia—now in 
the Terme—of a girl represented as A eee 


Artemis (Fig. 243). (Cameo in British Museum.) 
§ 9. Portraiture of Children—Not 
less exquisite than the portraiture of 
women was that of children, which ac- 
quired a fresh importance from the 
demand for effigies of the Imperial 
family. The children on the Ara Pacis 
have already afforded us examples of the 


FIG. 242.—JULIO-CLAUDIAN LADY. FIG. 243.—ROMAN GIRL AS ARTEMIS, 
(Vatican.) FROM OSTIA. 
(Terme.) 


195 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


Roman conception of well-bred and well-behaved childhood. The 
little Cupid riding a dolphin, at the side of the Augustus from 


FIG. 244.—HEAD OF BABY FROM THE 
AUGUSTUS OF PRIMA PORTA, 


Prima Porta, obviously a portrait— 
perhaps of the little Lucius Casar— 
is the work of an artist sympathetic 
to the moods of childhood. It shows 
us a real baby; the espieglerie of the 
sunny little face is as admirably ren- 
dered as are the folds of the fat firm 
flesh that breaks into dimples, for the 
child is evidently enjoying his ride 
and, being a Cupid, sits his dolphin 
as proudly as a mortal baby his pony 
or his rocking-horse, while the laugh- 
ing eyes are raised in shy trust to- 
wards the tall military figure at his 
side (Fig. 244). Then we have the 
wonderful head in the Museo Barracco, 
also found at Prima Porta, that repre- 
sents a little patrician alert and high- 
bred, with well-drawn expressive 


features and delicious hair (Sc. Rom., Figs. 215, 216). If the child 
on the dolphin be Lucius Cesar, this might equally well be the 


portrait of his brother 
Gaius, the latest born of 
Germanicus and Agrip- 
pina. A portrait of the 
child had been dedicated 
by Livia in the temple 
of Venus on the Capitol. 
A copy of it stood in the 
bedroom of Augustus, 
who used to kiss it when- 
ever he went into the 
room, and it may well be 
that we have another 
copy here made for the 
Villa of the Empress. 
The superb bronze in 


the Wyndham-Cook col- 


FIG. 245.—BRONZE HEAD OF BOY. 
(Formerly in Wyndham Cook Collection.) 


lection (Fig. 245), exhibited in 1903 at the Burlington Fine Arts 
Club, and the fine basalt head—once in the Robinson collection 
and now in New York—of a lad of twelve to fourteen years are also 


196 


-AUGUSTAN AND JULIO-CLAUDIAN PORTRAITURE 


noteworthy (Fig. 246). Moreover, it appears to be a replica of the 
head at Geneva which has recently been claimed as possibly a 


portrait of Gaius Caesar. We 
likewise have an occasional at- 
tempt at portraying the pathetic 
and suffering child, like the head 
of a boy in Berlin so long mis- 
named Marcellus. [Illness was 
admitted as a legitimate subject 
of art, as in the head of the sick 
baby in Munich, with the droop 
of the little suffering mouth, the 
large eyes, the protruding en- 
larged forehead (Hekler, 216). 
In fact, as a scholar has recently 
remarked, sickly children are 
extremely common in Roman 
portraiture (Poulsen, p. 55, with 
examples). So also Holbein, 
sanest of artists, in the altar- 
pieces of Darmstadt and of 
Dresden, pictured a sick and 
suffering child nestling for com- 
fort against the august Mother. 

§ 10. Family Portraits.—In the 
family portrait groups of father, 


FIG. 246.—BASALT HEAD OF BOY 


(New York.) 


mother and child, so common in sepulchral stelz, the main types of 
Roman portraiture are seen in conjunction. One of the best of the 


FIG. 247.—FAMILY GROUP ON TOMBSTONE. 
(Vatican. ) 


Augustan period is in the 
Galleria Lapidaria of the 
Vatican (Fig. 247); it so 
fascinated an unknown 
artist of the Renascence 
that he copied it for a 
monument in the little 
church of Sant’?Omobono 
in Rome. The child 
pathetically stands be- 
tween his parents and 
unites them both. An- 
other in the Galleria 
Chiaramonti (Hekler, 
134), though likewise of 


ART IN ANCIENT ROME 


Augustan date, retains traces of the death-masks which are here 
translated roughly into stone—the boy between them, possibly 
because he died first, is represented 
by his bust or imago (cf. above, 
p. 104). Good examples have found 
their way to private collections: e.g. a 
man between two women, at Ince 
(Poulsen, p. 40) another in the same 
collection with five personages (Poul- 
sen, p. 41)—one of whom, a young 
girl, holds a bird as symbol of the soul 
—each with the flower of resurrection. 
This art persists through all natural- 
ism and illusionism; it reasserts itself 
in the third century and developes 
gradually into the magnificent por- 
traiture of Diocletian, Constantine 
and their successors, which marks the 
highest level of the art in antiquity. 
FIG, 248.—STATUE FROM A TOMB. In the Capitoline Museum, the — 
(Capitoline Museum.) : 

mourning figure of a seated woman 

clothed in a long tunic and pallium 
(Fig. 248), is interesting as showing the combination of a 
portrait head—distinctly Augustan in character—with a body 
adapted from a Greek model of the 4th century s.c. (B. S. R., I, 
Pl. 20, 42). 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Aurigemma, S., in Boll. d’ Arte, 1922, p. 309 ff. (statues from Formiz);—ib. 1922-3, 
p. 58 ff.(statues from Venafro). Banko, J., in Ost. Jahr‘e.,xiv., 1911, p. 257 ff.(portrait 
of Agrippa);—ib. xxii., 1926, p. 47 ff. (portrait of Lucius Cesar (>) in Vienna). 
Bernoulli, J., Romische Iconographie (vol. i., 1882; vol. ii., 1886). Calza, G., in 
Ausonia, x., 1921 (Artemis of Ostia;—in Boll. d’Arie, 1923, p. 395 ff. (Artemis of 
Ostia). Delbrueck, R., Antike Portrats, 1912;—Arch. Jahrb., 1925, p. 13 (turquoise 
head in Florence). Formari and Comparetti, Boll. Aés. Arch. Rom., x., p. 179 ff, 
(portrait of Virgil). Gardner, P. G., in J.R.S., xii, 1922 (Livia, Ashmolean). Hekler. 
A., Greek and Roman Portraits, 1912. Imbhoof-Blumer, Portratképfe auf rémischen 
Miinzen der Republik und der Kaiserzeit, 2nd ed., 1904. Johnson, F. P., in A.J.A., 
xxx., 1926, pp. 158-176 (Imperial portraits at Corinth). Lippold, G., Griechische 
Portratstatuen, Munich, 1912, pp. 103 ff. (Augustus). Macdonald, G., in J.R.S., xvi, 
1926, p. | ff. (Suffolk bronze). Mariani, L., “Roman Busts in Museum of Candia” 
(A. J.A., 1897, pp. 267-278). Nogara, rf . R.M., xxix., 1914, pp. 186 ff. (bronze 


AUGUSTAN AND JULIO-CLAUDIAN PORTRAITURE 


head. of Augustus). Paribeni, R., “Un nuovo Ritratto di Nerone” (Ausonia, vi., 
1911). Poulsen, F., Greek and Roman Portraits in English Country Houses, 1924, 
Reinach, S., Courrier, 1926, p. 180 (Venafro statues). Schroder, B., Rémische Bildnisse. 
Berlin, 1923 (all illustrations after portraits in Berlin). Smith, Sir C., Burl. Mag., 
1907, p.99(Agrippina, r. of emerald). Stiickelberg, Die Bildnisse der rémischen Kaiser 
u. threr Angehorigen, 1916. Studniczka, Winchkelmannsfest, Leipzig, 1909 (Sejanus) 
= Hekler, 191). Swift, E. H., in A.J.A., xxv., 1921, pp. 142-157, 248-265, and 337- 
363 (Imperial portraits at Corinth);—b., xxvii., 1923, pp. 286-301 (Imperial portrait- 
ure). Waldhauer, O., J.R.S., xiii., 1923 (portrait head of Livia in the Hermitage). 


END OF VOL. I. 


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